The seated Golden Buddha in Bangkok is 3-meters (10-feet) high and weighs 12,000 pounds. At US$1,400 per troy ounce, the gold in the statue is worth $250 million dollars.
The Golden Buddha was completely covered in plaster to make an invading army think it was a commonplace cement statue. The ruse worked, but too well. The secret was forgotten for centuries.
In 1955, while the "cement" statue was being hoisted into its new home, the rope apparatus failed and the sculpture heavily fell to the ground.
The next day a surprised monk saw gold where a piece of the plaster had chipped off. The removal of the remaining plaster followed.
