The gold bars, worth a total of £10,000 (13,000 euros, $17,000), were buried in Folkestone, southeast England, by Berlin-based Michael Sailstorfer as part of an upcoming arts festival.

Members of the public will be allowed to keep any of the 24-carat bullion which they find.

"There are 30 gold bars buried there, along with a lot of washers, so if you bring your metal detector you will find a lot of washers before you find any gold," festival curator Lewis Biggs told the BBC.

"We will never know if the gold has been found or not."

One treasure hunter, John Coker, told the Guardian newspaper: "It is the first art in the world where I've hopped in a car and drove to see it straight away, so that's something."

The bars, worth around £300 each, are a few centimeters long.

The Folkestone Triennial's website said the German artist behind the project was interested in "the disruption of the everyday".

"Sailstorfer is intent on expanding the notion of classical sculpture and Folkestone Digs is a continuation of his aim 'to make art that comes less from the head and more from the stomach,'" it said.

【新闻快讯】

英国肯特郡福克斯通一个平日人迹罕至的沙滩近日吸引了大批稀客，他们带齐挖沙装备，由早到晚长期作战，目的是寻找德国行为艺术家迈克尔?塞斯托夫早前埋下的30条24K金条。

这批金条共30条，每条长约2寸，总值达1万英镑（约10万元人民币），是塞斯托夫对当地一个艺术节的“参展作品”。尽管艺术节周六才开幕，塞斯托夫告诉人们从当地时间28日下午4：00起大家便可开始“掘金”，且淘到的金子全部归自己所有。

自英国媒体报道了沙滩埋金的消息，大批淘金者随即涌至，直至黄昏已有约200人前来。有淘金者表示只要找到一条金条留念便心满意足，但也有人希望由此一朝致富。

由于金条所埋沙滩仅在退潮时才可前往，这意味着淘金者每天的寻宝时间极其有限。现在的季节，退潮时间为上午6：00至11：30，以及下午4：00至9：00。据报道，在未来数天内，这些被分割成10克、20克的金条或将吸引数千人前来。

此次寻宝活动被冠名“福克斯通大寻宝”，由布里斯托尔设计师协会赞助。该协会负责人克莱尔?多尔蒂表示：“公共艺术资金常常被用于静态雕塑或其他小玩意上，而我们正在进行的活动将产生更大影响，将创造长期集体记忆。”