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The treasure hunt for the “Golden Owl” in France appears to be over after several European news outlets report someone has finally cracked the code and found the statuette. That makes it the world’s longest treasure hunt after 31 years, 5 months, and 9 days.
French author Régis Hauser buried a statuette of an owl somewhere in France back in 1993 as a kind of promotion for his book, On The Trail of the Golden Owl, which he published under the pseudonym Max Valentin. Hauser said that the 11 puzzles in his book would reveal the location, something he assumed would happen relatively quickly.
The game’s co-creator painter Michel Becker announced on the Discord for the treasure hunt that someone had found the owl. It’s not clear yet who may have finally found it.
“We can confirm that the Golden Owl was unearthed last night, simultaneously with a solution upload that was sent to the online verification system. There is therefore no need for you to go digging at the location you assume to be the hiding spot,” Becker wrote in Discord according to an English language translation.
La célèbre Chouette d’or cachée quelque part en France depuis 1993 aurait été découverte cette nuit!!! #chouettedor #maxvalentin pic.twitter.com/aUsmhwUlV0
— Steph Cruchon (@stephcru) October 3, 2024
Hauser was the only one who knew the location of the owl and after he died a legal battle ensued between the author’s heirs and Becker, the co-creator of the game. Becker received the answers to the riddles in the early 2020s, according to EuroNews, and reinvigorated the hunt by launching a Discord server for discussion.
The prize owl weighs about 22 pounds (10kg), made of silver and gold. The owl also has diamonds in its head and is billed as worth about 150,000 euros ($165,000 US), though the one that’s been hidden is a bronze replica. Whoever has found the replica can now trade it in for the real deal, which is in Becker’s possession.
Before he died, Hauser insisted in 1996 that the puzzles really weren’t that hard if the people working on them would just work together. “If all the searchers put all their knowledge together, the owl would be found in… two hours,” Hauser said according to the BBC.
The treasure hunt that previously held the record for longest was in the UK and dubbed Quest: A Zetetic Treasure Hunt, which lasted 13 years and seven months, from 1992 until 2006, according to EuroNews. But even the people who may not have found the treasure this time may finally get some closure about the 11 puzzles that have perplexed them for all of these years. The answers to the puzzles are expected to eventually be released.
