Hundreds of treasure searching fanatics, save one, sulked in unison when it was introduced that France’s well-known treasure hunt for a “golden owl” had lastly come to an finish after 31 years.
Earlier this week, official social media accounts linked to the “On the Path of the Golden Owl” hunt introduced that the token wanted to say the grand prize had been discovered.
The hunt, primarily based on a e-book of riddles printed by creator Régis Hauser and artist Michel Becker in 1993, required individuals to resolve 11 puzzles from the e-book and a hidden twelfth to find out the precise location of the token.
“Do not go digging!” warned a message in a channel on the chat app Discord.
“We affirm that the Golden Owl counterbrand was found final evening,” the message stated, triggering a wave of unhappy and crying emojis. “Subsequently, it’s ineffective to dig.”
Options offered by those that claimed to have found the token had been being examined, the message stated.
The e-book has gained a faithful following with greater than 200,000 gamers, referred to as “owls”, from France and overseas, CNN reported.
In a documentary posted on YouTube, Becker revealed that the dear prize – an owl fabricated from three kilos of gold and 7 kilos of silver adorned with diamond chips – was created and financed by him.
Hauser, the mental architect of the enigmas who died in 2009, initially used the pseudonym Max Valentin to keep away from being sought out by keen treasure hunters.
He and Becker buried a duplicate of the owl, retaining the dear authentic in a protected place.
The worth of the treasure is estimated at round US$165,000, in line with followers. To say the treasure, the profitable participant should ship the reproduction together with the solutions to all of the riddles within the e-book.
The French media additionally marked the tip of the three-decade persecution, one of many longest unresolved scavenger hunts on this planet.
“I am dissatisfied as a result of I assumed it was shut, however on the similar time I am relieved that it is stopping,” a participant from the south of France reacted to the event on France Inter radio.
The 30-year-old stated he spent each weekend searching for the owl for the previous two years and generally discovered himself digging in the midst of the evening.
