Quote Originally Posted by 5a Violista View Post
Throughout most of the United States, the owner of the land owns any buried or hidden treasure they find on the land, with very few exceptions. And, since these artifacts don't fall under any of the exceptions (at least, all of the exceptions I could find) then, yes, Deus would legally, as recognized by the United States be the owner of that magical artifact if it ever came to court simply because he "just happened" to find it on land that he bought. (It's known as the "Finder's-Keeper's Law".)

The only way it wouldn't work is if somebody with a greater claim said it belonged to them - and, since it was altered by a murderous fugitive with no way to claim it and the previous owners are part of a secret society that probably won't be able to prove their claim or even come public, Deus would be the person with the strongest claim on it.

In fact, if you "find" a bag of diamonds on your land, then you are clear of trouble if you choose to keep it (unless you suspect it was stolen or intentionally put there by somebody, then you turn it in to the police and if they can't find its previous owners in 90 days then you become the rightful owners of them.
Having said that, if you were to find, say, an active land mine on your property, the government wouldn't let you just keep it there, active. As soon as they heard about it, they would send in a bomb disposal squad to, at the very least, make sure it wont blow up if a tree gets too much snow on it and loses a branch or something like that.