“On the Trail of the Golden Owl” is a treasure hunt.
But it is not just any search: it began in 1993 with the publication of a book with 11 practically undecipherable riddles to find the treasure and concluded this week, more than three decades later, when someone managed to unearth a bronze replica of a small owl in France. in flight.
“A potentially winning solution is being verified,” said a message on the game’s official website at 6:11 a.m. Thursday.
A second message, published hours later, gave the order: “Do not continue digging. “We confirm that the replica of the golden owl was unearthed during the course of last night, and that a solution was simultaneously presented.”
The messages – which caused shock to the tens of thousands of people who participated in the game – were published by Michel Becker, the artist who illustrated the original book “Sur la Trace de la Chouette d’Or” and sculpted the small statuette that resurfaced from the earth 31 years later.
The rules
Finding the owl was not an easy task.
Those who participated in the game had to solve 11 complicated riddles (“There is no worse blind person than the one who does not want to see 1=530, 3=470…” says one. “Opening. My first, first half of the first half of the first age, precedes my second and third, searching for its path…”, begins another), which would lead them to some place in France where they would find the replica.
The puzzles are detailed in the first book, written by the game’s creator, Max Valentin (real name Régis Hauser), who died in 2009, leaving Becker in charge of the hobby.
Under the rules of the game, whoever found the replica would be rewarded with the original owl, made of gold, silver and precious stones, whose value today, according to a Canal+ documentary, is about $165,000 dollars.
The winner also had to prove that he reached the treasure after solving the puzzles and not by other means.
Joy and skepticism
“I didn’t think I would live to see this day,” says one of the comments from a participant on the game’s official forum, after learning the news. “It’s like Covid. It was very good when it was finished,” he adds.
“Strangely enough, I feel relieved. Now I am desperate to know the solutions to see if I was on the right path,” comments another user.
“Finally released,” notes another.
However, some were skeptical, suggesting that the treasure could have been found with a metal detector.
legal saga
Following Valentin’s death, the search was mired in legal disputes for several years, and not all participants readily accepted Becker inheriting the central role.
At first, Becker himself did not know the location of the buried statuette, since this information was in a sealed envelope in the possession of Valentin’s family.
But once the legal difficulties were resolved, Becker read the solution and traveled to the site to verify that the owl was still there.
In recent years, the artist released more tracks, sparking the interest of a new generation of chouetteursas the game’s participants are affectionately known.
So far, it has not been revealed who discovered the replica, nor where it was buried.
Keep reading:
* The oldest coins ever found in North America are located in Rhode Island
* Buy abandoned and ruined house without imagining the treasure you would find inside it
* Children find buried treasure with 425 gold coins more than a thousand years old
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