this is bbc news — the headlines: britain has officially left the european union, bringing an end to nearly half a century of membership. the moment of departure triggered celebrations by brexit supporters around the country, with many people waving union flags for others though it was a sad moment. there have been muted counter—rallies by people who wanted to remain in the eu, saying they feel disenfranchised by the move. us senators have voted against calling witnesses at donald trump's impeachment trial, a move which brings the end of the process much closer. the democrats failed to persuade enough republicans that witness testimony was necessary. the authorities in the chinese province of huh bay have declared thirteen hundred new cases of the corona virus, and confirm at least 45 more deaths. the us has announced it

will bar foreigners who have been to china from entering the country. now on bbc news, our world. in the spring of 2017, off the coast of gaza, fishermen made an extraordinary discovery.

their incredible find became known as the gaza hoard. it contained hundreds of ancient coins. but within months, the coins had disappeared. gaza lost a unique treasure. so what's happened to the gaza hoard and why is the world of international coins such a mystery?

i will ask matt is a fisherman who barely makes enough money to support his family. israel and egypt maintain a tight blockade of gaza by land, sea and air, citing the security concerns. fishermen found dozens of some of the rarest coins of the ancient world. they had no idea what they we re world. they had no idea what they were 01’ world. they had no idea what they were or what their real value was.

the coins found by the fishermen we re the coins found by the fishermen were silver alexander the great decadrachms, minted more than 2000 yea rs decadrachms, minted more than 2000 years ago in babylon, modern day iraq. before the fishermen‘s discovery in gaza, only a handful of these coins had been found. just 12 are officially recorded. they were all documented and our valuable history is preserved. we've been told that there were dozens of alexander decadrachms in the gaza hoard but now, they've vanished. just months later, this coin went up for sale at an auction house based in london called semantics. it sold for £100,000. then there was this one. this one. and this

one. there have been a total of 19 coins put up for auction at eight international auction houses since spring 2017. no verifiable information about where they came from was provided in any auction catalogues. the fishermen found their coins off the coast of an area called blekhir. today, it appears an unremarkable stretch of coastline but in alexander the great‘s time, this was the most important trading point in the south—eastern mediterranean known as anti— don. this man is an

archaeologist in gaza. before the blockade, he was part of an international team excavated the blekhir site. in 2017, fishermen came to him and asked him if they knew what they were. inside the bags we re knew what they were. inside the bags were hundreds of coins. some still heavily encrusted with salt and sand from the t. ——c. inside, hundreds of valuable alexander the great decadrachm coins. fadel was the first to identify the coins as 2300 year old

alexander the great decadrachms. 0nce fadel realised their value, he realised it would be impossible to stop them from being sold on. fadel photographed this coin which is obviously a decadrachm. you can see it because there is a scale and you can see

them, the coin is more than three centimetres wide. professor thomas buzzed to as a coin expert, otherwise known as a nusmatist. he is one of the people that fadel said his photographs too. he is one of a handful of people keeping track of all the decadrachm circulating around the world. this one, no origin. this one, no origin. this one, no origin. theyjust auction without any origin. this one from the inventory of a north american dealer. how interesting. what is the for a numismatist of such the origin? the descriptions given by the auction houses give little away and the professor has not been able to match any of the auction coins with the

photos taken by fadel. the north american, european and private collections are meaningless to me. how can you verify such an origin. this is not an origin. you could as well print from a private martian collection. it's not illegal or uncommon to sell coins with no published ownership history, known as provenance in the industry, but it is very unusual or extremely rare coins to be sold without it. auction houses say that they can only share information that they have been given consent to publish. the united states, united kingdom and most european countries have strict laws which make it illegal to sell exceptionally rare antiquities if they are known or even suspected to be newly found and undocumented. but the coins could have come from never before documented collections

held since before relevant laws came into force. they can then be bought and sold without breaching the current laws. the sale of the £100,000 coin, or rumours of a new hordes being found, may have encouraged alexis —— collectors to bring their illegal coins to the market. iam i am works for the ministry of tourism antiquities in gaza. we asked her what she knew about the gaza hordes.

by by law, the fishermen ‘s big fines should have been handed into the ministry and officially documented asa ministry and officially documented as a priceless part of gaza's heritage. instead, the fishermen sold their coins onto traders illegally.

the fishermen say they have no choice but to sell what they find. the fishermen have tried to piece together what happened today coins after they sold them to local

dealers. the seizure of coins by the israeli authorities at the border caught the attention of the professor. i made a comparison of the two coins. this is the picture came “— the two coins. this is the picture came —— taken by fadel in march 2017 and this is the picture published on the israeli news site injuly 17 and you can see it's obviously the very same coin, all the details are identical. he finally found a match, linking a coin in fadel‘s pictures with this one stopped at the border. he suspects other coins were successfully smuggled out and sold on. the israeli authorities told the bbc they cannot comment on the coins seized because there

is an ongoing investigation. auction houses are expected to carry out due diligence to establish a coin's provenance but they are also able to rely on the word of a trusted consignor, the person who bought the coins to the auction house for sale. we asked roma in the seven other auction houses for information about the 19 other decadrachms put up a sale since the gaza border was found in spring 2017. none were able to provide us with the name of the consignor but our investigation has identify the source of six out of the 19 alexander decadrachms put up for sale since 2017. on these instagram and facebook accounts that belong to a famous palestinian coin collecting family are pictures of coins including alexander decadrachms that have turned up in recent auctions. five of the alexander decadrachms

since spring 2017 via classical numismatic group, numismatic newman, no miss ag and heritage are linked here to the tarik henry collection. the family provided the bbc with this document which lists that these five coins and a further one recently sold had beenin and a further one recently sold had been in their collection since the 19605 been in their collection since the 1960s before current laws governing the buying and selling of antiquities came into force, making them legal to trade now. and what about the other 13? where might these queens come from? including the queen sold from a private canadian collection? this man is richard beale. the director of somatic. they have sold 11 alexander decadrachms since spring

2017, including the alexander coin. he declined to be interviewed on camera and when we met him he couldn't tell us anything more than was published in one of their auction catalogues. butjust u psta i rs auction catalogues. butjust upstairs room numismatics had another decadrachm on display ahead of another option. in order to see an film that coin we posed as a buyer and went back. they are certainly very chunky things, aren't they? this queen later sold for £46,000. during this visit we learned that the queen's consignor was a canadian gentleman and when we we re was a canadian gentleman and when we were given one of roma's option catalogues and we spotted a name we had heard before.

the fishermen tell us that he is a contact the fishermen tell us that he is a co nta ct of the fishermen tell us that he is a contact of someone who buys coins from them. although we haven't been able to link him to the gaza horde. so who is he? he is not a formal pa rt so who is he? he is not a formal part of roma numismatics's business. but roma's director, richard beale used to be the co—director of his

company, athena numismatics. 0n used to be the co—director of his company, athena numismatics. on his facebook page we find this post. "after a six—month effort and hard work with our partners we present for the first time ever some very rare greek pieces." in september 2018 roma sold that coin for £40,000. we asked him if he was involved in the sale of the £100,000 coin orany of involved in the sale of the £100,000 coin or any of the other alexander decadrachms auctioned by roma numismatics since september 2017. he said he was not involved in the sale of any of the alexander decadrachms. he told us... i do have two decadrachms that were bought from a dealer. the two queens have nothing to do with gaza. richard beale, the director of roma

numismatics, told the bbc... we were satisfied that the bbc... we were satisfied that the consignors were known to us and had a record of professionalism and trust. he added that the consignors... we asked mr beale where and when the queens were originally found and he said he was not aware and that this was not unusual in the industry. none of the experts or historians we consulted were able to match the photos of the queens bound by the system with the alexander decadrachms put up for sale in auction houses around the world. the way the current laws and regulations around the queen industry work make it really ha rd around the queen industry work make it really hard to trace the history

of coins and so understand what they tell us about the ancient world. despite calls for new regulations to be introduced, auction houses and consignors are under no obligation to reveal the provenance of the coins they sell. in fact, data protection laws can prevent them from sharing this information. our investigation has uncovered where only some of the recently auctioned queens came from. we may never know where the gaza horde ended up. what we do know is that gaza has lost a pa rt we do know is that gaza has lost a part of its history.

today, on top of this aside, is a past of the vast eljennati refugee camp. what lay beneath has been forgotten camp. what lay beneath has been fo rg otte n by camp. what lay beneath has been forgotten by most.

in the sum of 2019, the ministry of antiquities in gaza was closed down due to lack of funding —— summer. the seven other auction houses had this to say about the alexander decadrachms they put up for sale. classical numismatics group changed ownership in november 2018, the new ownership in november 2018, the new owner told the bbc... hester de vos said. no moss ag told the bbc they receive the queen after it failed to sell —— coin. they said they had...

numismatics newman said... heritage auction told the bbc... i rang gary and shulman bc have not responded to the request from the bbc.

hello there. it was another windy day on friday. as we head on into the weekend, low pressure will always be nearby. so it will stay rather unsettled. mild for most, and there will be some rain at times, but also some sunshine too. so here it is — low pressure to the north of the uk on saturday. this will bring some rain to northern areas. quite a few isobars on the chart there, hence the windy weather. and then this area of low pressure will arrive during saturday night into sunday. the very mild air will be pushed off into the near continent on saturday, and something a little less mild will move in. but it's still going to be pretty mild across the south. so, a blustery day for most. that weather front i showed you, affecting scotland, northern ireland and northern england with showery bursts of rain. could have a little bit of rain across the south—east, but that should clear away and then for many it will be sunshine and showers into the afternoon. most of those showers across western areas. the winds dig down from the north across scotland, so blustery here, but also blustery across england and wales. here, the winds coming in from the south—west, so it will be much milder across the south and further north. in fact, turning quite chilly, a few wintry showers here. again, 10 or 11 degrees

in the south, not quite as mild as it was on friday. now, as we head through saturday night, one or two showers around, wintry on the hills in scotland. but then a quieter spell before that next area of low pressure comes hurtling in to bring outbreaks of rain into northern ireland, england and wales. some of that rain will be mild and heavy through saturday night, turning milder again in the south as the rain arrives, but quite a chilly night to come across the north and north—east. so, here it is, a bit of a complicated picture through sunday morning. we've got that weather slowly sliding north, tending to clear away from eastern england as the morning wears on, but it could be quite a damp start for northern, eastern england, northern ireland, central, southern scotland. as that rain bumps into the cold air across scotland, we might see some snow over the mountains there. into the afternoon, it improves for many, sunny spells around, one or two showers mainly across western areas. you'll notice the milder air will be back, 11 to 14 degrees here, much chillier in the north. as we head on into monday, this area of low pressure,

deep low will bring a swathe of severe gales to the north of the country, certainly to scotland. they could see some snow over the high ground. the windy weather then clears away into tuesday and then we see a big area of high pressure building around the middle parts, that will settle things down, but it will be a bit colder. so a milder day on monday with some rain around. mid week, high pressure builds and it will settle down, turn brighter with overnight frost and gradually it will turn milder by the end of the week.

this is bbc world news. our top stories: the uk has left the european union and will embark on talks about the future relationship —— but the country is far from united. to be independent, to be free to make our own trade rules is extremely porton for me as a button. i think it's against the peace and prosperity we have had and i think we are very arrogant and i think that's really dangerous for us asa that's really dangerous for us as a country. us senators vote against calling witnesses at donald trump's impeachment trial, making the acquittal of the president

all but certain. 1,300 new cases of the coronavirus are confirmed in china. the death toll rises to almost 260. and we'll be live in melbourne in the run—up to the final act in the women's competition. none of the britain has now officially left the european union after 47 years. there have been celebrations and commiserations across the united kingdom with many people gathering in the streets to mark the moment of history. prime minister boris johnson says it's not an end but a beginning — but many questions remain over what the future holds. john maguire reports.