Thousands of treasure hunt enthusiasts, except one, sulked in unison as it was announced that France’s famous treasure hunt for a “golden owl” finally came to an end after 31 years.
Earlier this week, official social media accounts linked to the “On the Trail of the Golden Owl” hunt, announced that the token required to claim the grand prize was found.
The hunt, based on a book of riddles published by author Régis Hauser and artist Michel Becker in 1993, required participants to solve 11 puzzles in the book and a 12th hidden one to determine the exact location of the token.
“Don’t go digging!” warned a message on a channel on the chat app Discord.
“We confirm that the Golden Owl countermark was unearthed last night,” the message read, unleashing a wave of sad and crying emojis. “It is therefore useless to go digging.”
The solutions provided by those who claimed to have unearthed the token were currently being vetted, the message said.
The book garnered a devoted following with over 200,000 players, known as “owlers,” from France and abroad, CNN reported.
In a documentary posted on YouTube, Becker revealed that the valuable prize — an owl made of three kilogrammes of gold and seven kilogrammes of silver adorned with diamond chips — was created and financed by him.
Hauser, the intellectual architect of the riddles who passed away in 2009, initially used the pen name Max Valentin to avoid being sought out by eager treasure hunters.
He and Becker buried a replica of the owl, keeping the precious original in a safe place.
The treasure’s worth is estimated at around $165,000, according to fans. To claim the treasure, the winning player must submit the replica along with the answers to all of the book’s enigmas.
French media outlets also marked the end of the three-decade-long chase, one of the world’s longest unsolved scavenger hunts.
“I’m disappointed because I thought I was close but at the same time relieved that it’s stopping,” one participant from the south of France reacted to the development on France Inter radio.
The 30-year-old man said he had spent all his weekends searching for the owl over the past two years, and had at times found himself digging in the middle of the night.