What does inquiry mean in this context?

From here:

In a bulletin dated June 2, officials said the owner has five years to make a claim for the treasure.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office told CNN that several inquiries had been made about the gold and were being checked. Not details about the nature of the checks were given.

At first I thought an inquiry meant "a claim for the treasure" in the same way it was mentioned in previous paragraph. As if a lot of people claimed the treasure and these claims "were being checked" (for truthness, as the sentence says).

But it turned out that most definitions I found for inquiry refers to "a claim" but "for information" only (instead of an object, a thing), or an "investigation". As if who made the inquiry was the police (not the people).

If inquiry here means simply "investigation", what would "an investigation being checked"mean?

Thanks!