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Romania Wants Return of 93.4 tons as Gold Repatriation Ratchets

 

 Romania wants its gold treasure back from Russia, a recent Bullion Street article says. It’s another signal of the accelerating trend of countries to repatriate their gold—and another indication that the tide is turning toward gold and silver.

Two railway carloads, or 93.4 tons of gold, were transferred to Russia as German troops began to threaten the region during World War I.  According to the article, “All the governments of Romania since World War I, regardless of their political colour, have tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a return of the gold.”
Of course, this is not the first time the Romanian people, or people of any region for that matter, have found their monetary metals tempting to foreign powers. Invaders sent by Roman Emperor Trajan found gold and silver in great quantities in the Western Carpathians, which run through what is now modern-day Romania. Resulting from this conquest, Trajan brought back to Rome over 165 tons of gold and 330 tons of silver.
It is interesting that considering this history independent auditors say Germany has stored its gold abroad since the Cold War in case of Soviet invasion. Additionally, the auditor’s report says the German gold stored in London has fallen "below 500 tons" due to recent sales and repatriation. Considering German gold stocks have remained the same, the sale of physical gold must have been offset by an acquisition of paper promising to pay gold from the Federal Reserve Bank or other entities needing a physical supply of gold.
One event that may have triggered a large-scale demand for physical delivery of gold was the repatriation of the 211 tons, or 17,000 standard 400-ounce bars, of Venezuelan gold.

“We’ve held 99 tons of gold at the Bank of England since 1980. I agree with bringing that home,” President Hugo Chavez said, “It’s a healthy decision.”

The obvious danger to having others hold your valuables is that they can simply deny your right to audit or access what they store for you. German lawmakers were turned away from viewing the 1,500 tons of German gold reportedly held at the New York branch of the privately held Federal Reserve Bank (Fed). This fact may have played a part in the recent German federal court ruling that mandates repatriation of 50 tons of the gold per annum. For more, see Germany Brings it Home – Gold Repatriation as Stocks Scare.
One reason Russia has refused to cooperate with Romania’s demand for its gold is assumed to be Romania’s cooperation with the U.S. missile “shield.” According to the Huffington Post, in 2011, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed the agreement with Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi and said the United States expected to deploy interceptor missiles at a Romanian air force base in approximately four years.
Mr. Eugen Anca at the time of the following quote ran the European arm of the Institute for Foreign Economic Relations (VNIIVS), a governmental agency of the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Economic Development and Commerce. He comments on the Romanian “gold treasure”

The Treasure is privately owned. Specifically, it is the private property of the National Bank of Romania (BNR)! At least this is how it was defined and certified by Victor Antonescu himself, the minister for finances in 1916, who signed the Protocol with Kremlin. This document is public and it can be found by any interested reader in the Foreign Ministry Archive, fund 71/1914, E2, Part I, vol. 183, pages 50 – 53. And there are certified copies of this document held by the Ministry for Finances, BNR, the French and British embassies, and Kremlin.

For this reason the Russians wanted a private corporation to exchange the BNR’s gold with a private Romanian entity that could secure assistance in developing Siberian natural resources as a win-win situation that could offer an new option to offset the 300 million (274 tons of gold) owed Russia per the 1947 Paris peace treaty previously satisfied via confiscation of the BNR gold stored in Russia. This is crucial, the “Romanian gold” is not even owned by Romania, it is owned by a private bank acting as the central bank of Romania. Sounds familiar as Americans handed their gold over to the Federal Reserve in 1934, not their state or federal Treasuries.
One lesson here for international players is that “if you can’t hold it, you don’t own it!” According to Edel Tully, precious metals strategist at UBS, “There is a growing preference among many different communities in the gold market to have their physical gold at home.”
Over the years the Russians have returned to Romania 17 railroad car loads of archives and documents, including as many as 39,320 Romanian art works were returned in 1956, including paintings, drawings, engravings, icons, tapestry works, religious objects, gold coins, medals and the Pietroasele treasure (below).

https://wealthcycles.com/blog/2012/10/23/romania-wants-return-of-934-tons-as-gold-repatriation-ratchets-up