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Bank's £1.4bn conundrum over ownership of Venezuela's gold in London
The Guardian
|January 07, 2026
Deep under London’s streets, Nicolás Maduro’s seizure by the US has reopened a multibillion-dollar question: who controls Venezuela’s gold reserves at the Bank of England?
While attention has been focused on Venezuela’s oil reserves, it also has significant gold holdings - including bullion frozen in Britain that has been the subject of a tussle in UK courts. The estimated 31 tonnes of gold, about 15% of its total foreign currency reserves, was valued in UK court documents in 2020 at about $1.95bn. However, the gold price has more than doubled since, meaning the bars are probably worth more.
This story is from the January 07, 2026 edition of The Guardian.
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