A MYSTERIOUS set of questions still remain after one of the world’s longest treasure hunts was solved this week.
For 31 long years over 200,000 people have tried to crack a number of riddles in order to find the location of an eerie golden owl trophy – with the bird now finally being unearthed.
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But despite the discovery of the rumoured £250,000 owl in France very little details of the find have been released – including who found it or where it was hidden.
Based on a book titled On the Trail of the Golden Owl those playing the game had to solve 11 clever riddles with each one unlocking a further clue about where the owl would be.
Solving the final enigma – a twelfth made up of the other 11 – was said to reveal the exact spot where the bird was buried but no one had managed to crack it up until now.
On Thursday the official game organiser and original book’s illustrator Michel Becker posted online that is was found.
A post on an official chatline for the treasure seekers read: “A potentially winning solution is being verified.
“No more solutions may be submitted. Further information will be communicated as soon as possible.”
Two hours later a second post confirmed the successful find saying: “Do not keep digging!
“We confirm that the replica of the golden owl was unearthed during the course of last night, and a solution simultaneously submitted.”
Despite the game makers declaring the hunt over the droves of seekers are still searching for answers to see how close they might have been to finding the owl.
As of Friday morning no further information has been released outside of Thursday’s announcements.
Some community members have even suspected foul play due to the result being shrouded in secrecy.
Gérard Simon, the chairman of the Association of Seekers of the Golden Owl, even claimed the real owl had “clearly not” been found.
One of the strict rules set by the book’s author Max Valentin in 1993 was that whoever found it had to have used the riddles in order to reach the final destination.
This rule meant the use of metal detectors or other underground tools was strictly forbidden
The infamous and seemingly unsolvable twelfth enigma proved impossible to crack for decades meaning many believed no one was in with a chance.
Becker and his team running the game are expected to have inspected and verified the find prior to calling off the search, however.
The treasure hunt has also been at the centre of several lawsuits in the past relating to the pricey owl.
One saw Becker bring one up against Valentin’s family where he asked to be told the exact whereabouts of the buried bird.
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This was filed just after Valentin – whose real name was Régis Hauser – died in 2009, leaving Becker in control of the game.
The envelope revealing the answers to the riddles was with Valentin’s heirs meaning not even Becker knew the solution.
A second case was then made against the illustrator by the furious treasure hunters after it was revealed Becker was trying to sell the owl.
The owl buried in the ground was actually a bronze replica of the golden statue.
The eventual winner would trade in the cheaper bronze relic for the £250,000 one which was held by Becker.
A judge ended up ruling that the golden sculpture wasn’t allowed to be sold as it legally belonged to whichever person found the replica.
But many hunters have suspected that Becker or someone close to him buried a separate owl in the ground a few years ago.
With some saying this is the one which has been found rather than the original.
Becker has always dismissed the claims and called them nonsense.
What was the Golden Owl Hunt?
THE mysterious Golden Owl Hunt focuses on the famous treasure hunt book On The Trail Of The Golden Owl by Max Valentin.
The book contains several clues and riddles leading readers to a final location with a hidden cache stored away somewhere in France.
Michel Becker also helped create the mystery as he made eleven paintings for the book, as well as the final prize, the Golden Owl statuette.
The statuette is 10 inches high and 20 inches wide, and weighs 33 lbs.
The book consists of eleven double-page spreads, each of which is a discrete riddle composed of a title, text, and a painting.
Each pair of pages is numbered with a wavelength associated with its colours, and with an owl face.
Three specific techniques to help those competing to find the golden owl were shared by Valentin shortly before his death.
They include:
- The use of maps as the reader must do something with a map, to reveal the final zone of the game. Then use a precise map of that zone to find the cache that contains the owl.
- The existence of a “mega trick” which is the key to using the sequence of eleven riddles to identify the final zone.
- The existence of a final, hidden riddle that completes the game. When a reader finds this riddle in the final zone, they will be able to utilise elements of the previous riddles to form and solve the last riddle. The decryption of the last riddle will lead to the cache that contains the owl.
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