Brad Pitt Spent an Entire Year Searching for Gold at His French Estate
Brad Pitt was convinced there was buried treasure just waiting to be found on the property of his French estate, Château Miraval.
Château Miraval is where he and Angelina Jolie got married in 2014. The former couple's wine is produced at the chateau and vineyard, though Jolie recently sold her stake in the company.
At one point the actor "got obsessed" with finding gold allegedly buried on the property. It was all he could think about for an entire year.
According to the actor's recent GQ cover story, a few years ago Pitt was told there was millions of dollars worth of gold buried on the property because "one of the estate's medieval owners had taken from the Levant during the Crusades."
He became fixated on finding the supposed hidden treasure. "Like for a year, this was all I could think about, just the excitement of it all," he told the magazine.
Pitt searched for the hidden treasure on the grounds of Château Miraval in Southern France and, even after buying radar equipment, he still came up empty-handed. Pitt believes that the man who approached him with the story was "ultimately seeking money for some kind of radar company."
Pitt believes his obsession with discovering the gold may have been fueled by where he grew up.
"Maybe it has something to do with where I grew up, because in the Ozark Mountains there were always stories of hidden caches of gold," he shared.
The actor was born in Shawnee, Okla. During his childhood he moved to Springfield, Mo., where he attended high school and, later, the University of Missouri. He moved to L.A. to take acting lessons shortly before graduating.
Ultimately, Pitt was surprised that he let himself believe in the idea of a buried treasure. He described the whole experience as "pretty foolish in the end."