The “Golden Chouette”, a legendary French treasure hunt, has finally ended after 31 years

UNUSUAL – In April 1993, a certain Régis Hauser buried somewhere in France a small sculpture of an owl then worth 1,000,000 francs. Since that date, thousands of “ owls » are trying to get hold of him. In vain… until Thursday October 3, 2024.

Since that day, there is in fact no point in launching or resuming research on the “ golden owl », object of fantasies for treasure hunting enthusiasts for 31 years. Because the quest for this little golden raptor ended on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, as announced by one of the organizers of this almost impossible quest, made up of eleven puzzles.

As indicated Releaseit was on the game’s Discord forum that Michel Becker announced the news Thursday morning. “ We confirm that the countermark of the Golden Owl (a copy made of bronze) was unearthed last night, simultaneously with a solution submission to the online verification system »he blurted out, thus killing the hopes of “ owls » always on the lookout.

“There is therefore no point in moving to dig on the location you assume to be the cache. As previously announced, we are verifying the validity of the proposed solution”adds the painter, co-organizer of this treasure hunt, one of the oldest in the world.

Eleven (almost) unsolvable riddles

It is therefore the end of a long adventure which is looming, while waiting to know the name of the big winner of the quest for the “ golden owl “. Because once confirmed, his victory will above all allow us to learn more about the famous enigmas which make up this hunt and which, once solved, make it possible to define the exact point where Régis Hauser had buried the replica of the real treasure: a sculpture of an owl worth around 150,000 euros.

Originally, the project by Régis Hauser and Michel Becker was in the form of a small book entitled: On the trail of the Golden Owl. Eleven enigmas, accompanied by eleven paintings by Michel Becker leading to the precious sesame. Over the years, Regis Hauser, who later called himself Max Valentin, provided numerous additional clues via Minitel, then on the first internet forums. And this, until 2009, when he died exactly sixteen years after burying the owl during the famous night of April 23 to 24, 1993.

Beyond the blow that his death causes among the treasure seekers, it is the quest itself which takes a major blow in the wing. It must be said that Régis Hauser knew how to maintain the mystery and excitement around his giant enigma. Along with a bailiff, he was the only one to know the exact location of the loot.

Second souffle

In the years following the death of the game’s main creator, the hunt for ” golden owl » is lost in legal battles, each one stranger than the other: between a “ owl » convinced of having found the treasure which is suing the organizers, the seizure of the real treasure (not the buried one) by the courts after the bankruptcy of the company which carefully kept the original in a safe, or the petitions to put end the game due to the risks to the health and personal lives of the treasure seekers.

The game of golden owl » will finally find a second wind in 2021, when Michel Becker obtains the solutions to the game, not without difficulty, after years of procedures and an endless quest to extract the solutions from a floppy disk that has become unreadable. The opportunity for him to discover the location of the treasure, which is still where it had been hidden almost 30 years earlier.

If controversy has regularly followed the resumption of the project by Michel Becker in recent years, the discovery of the final solution has finally vindicated those who feared that it would accelerate the discovery of the precious treasure. And prove to others, who doubted the veracity of this quest, that she was not fake.

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