Detect evil/magic should still be free. Depending on edition. A lich’s Philactory is an evil magic item in most games.
A smart lich has so many anti-divination effects on it even it can’t find the thing.
Also; the one my friend made hid the thing in the guise of cheap, flea-market trash and sold it so literally no one could track it down.
Gets sold to a jeweler who breaks it up for a wedding ring
Or at least put some level of enchantment on everything in your horde so that “break the magic one” isn’t any more viable than “smash every single thing”
So prediction, sage to be dramatic will have it start to rez and they will hold it off for a few seconds in order to give phill the last bit of time he needs to figure out where it is and break it, because dramatic.