section_path: Provenance/Discovery
section_name: Discovery
paragraph_text: Discovery
  
  The helmet was discovered in 1926 on a grassland by a farmer's child named Traian Simion who was herding sheep in the village of Poiana Coțofenești (now part of Vărbilău commune), Prahova County, Romania, at a location called "Vârful Fundăturii". The child reportedly wore the helmet for two weeks and used it as a toy, causing some parts to become detached from the helmet. According to archeologists analysis, the top part of the helmet was damaged by being hit or pulled on while hanging on a tree. The helmet was also used as a watering trough for chickens, and eventually the farmer placed it on top of his chicken coop.
  
  At some time, a Ploiești merchant by the name of Ion (or Jean) Marinescu-Moreanu bought the helmet, including the detached upper part, for the sum of 30,000 lei, equivalent to up to 30 years' income for the farmer. Marinescu offered the helmet to head of the Ministry of Arts Ion Marin Sadoveanu. In April 1929, the helmet was purchased by the Ministry of Public Instruction and Cults for the National Museum of Antiquities, now the National History Museum of Romania. Initially, Marinescu was celebrated for saving a national treasure, but after the landslide 1928 Romanian general election, Marinescu, presumably a sympathizer of the losing Liberal Party, was vilified for 'enriching himself'.
  
  The helmet was kept since the 1970s at the National History Museum of Romania.