> In 2021 Michel Becker became the official organiser of the treasure hunt, obtaining the sealed envelope containing the hunt solution from the family of Régis Hauser. Becker journeyed with a legal bailiff to check that the owl prize was still buried at the location revealed in the solution. He reported that when he dug at the spot he found the owl missing and instead found a rusty iron bird. He replaced this rusty bird with a new bronze owl so that the treasure hunt could continue
The english version is weird. It was planned from the beggining that they would bury a bronze owl.
The bronze owl was to be exchanged with the precious metal one. In the french news, they specifically mentioned that the bronze one was found.
If you think about it, it makes more sense. The co-founder was given the rights to the original treasure hunt because he is the owner of the valuable owl. He is the one who financed the whole thing.
We "chouettistes" are thirsty for more as well. There is almost a cult growing out of some hypothesis, we are waiting for the confirmed solutions a bit like the second coming.
That's right. Masquerade by Kit Williams [1] was a phenomena in 1979 - a book of weird illustrations that somehow contained a puzzle as to where a golden hare was buried.
Even a fifteen year-old living in Kansas at the time was drawn to it, got caught up in it.
The golden hare was found after a few years — the whole story of the hare and its finding are well documented in the book by Bamber Gascoigne, Quest for the Golden Hare [2].
The account is a fun read: why Kit decided on buried treasure, how he went about creating the artwork/puzzle, the adventure of burying the rabbit.... But far and away the most fascinating bit describes the various treasure-hunters that then came after the hare.
The party that solved the puzzle did not find the hare. The party that dug it up had not solved the puzzle.
Note that the ACTUAL organizer of the treasure hunt is not Michel Becker, but Régis Hauser (aka Max Valentin) who died more than 10 years ago.
Michel Becker only helped illustrate the book that is the support for the hunt and has taken over it when he passed.
As far as I know this was quite controversial because he had not knowledge about the riddles or how to solve them, and was only able to take over because there was a notarized enveloped left behind by the original creator which explained everything.
Could you explain more because the author passed away and left the solutions to the riddles in a notarised envelope to a close collaborator who worked on another part of the book so the hunt could live on - the solution is finally found by an unrelated party a whole decade later - doesn’t seem notably controversial to me?
There are more details on the french wikipedia article but basically Michel Becker did everything he could to make money out of the success of the treasure hunt, doing things that were either unethical or deemed contrary to the true creator's original intent.
This included taking possession of the solution which wasn't meant for him to get, trying to sell the prize for himself and releasing new clues to renew interest in the hunt which he was still profiting from in different ways.
Used car buyers, have you checked out Car Owl (https://carowl.co.uk/car/full-history-check/)? Their full history check shows critical info like insurance write-offs and past accidents, which can save you a lot of headaches.
Similar: the Forrest Fenn treasure https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenn_treasure
> In 2021 Michel Becker became the official organiser of the treasure hunt, obtaining the sealed envelope containing the hunt solution from the family of Régis Hauser. Becker journeyed with a legal bailiff to check that the owl prize was still buried at the location revealed in the solution. He reported that when he dug at the spot he found the owl missing and instead found a rusty iron bird. He replaced this rusty bird with a new bronze owl so that the treasure hunt could continue
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_O...
Sounds like somebody actually had already solved it?
The english version is weird. It was planned from the beggining that they would bury a bronze owl.
The bronze owl was to be exchanged with the precious metal one. In the french news, they specifically mentioned that the bronze one was found.
If you think about it, it makes more sense. The co-founder was given the rights to the original treasure hunt because he is the owner of the valuable owl. He is the one who financed the whole thing.
The French Wikipedia page doesn't specify it, but the quoted text from the English Wikipedia page involving an iron bird (and not a bronze owl) is accurate. Here's the official report of finding it: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0511/4586/7430/files/pv.co... (liked from https://editions-chouettedor.com/pages/documents-officiels).
Here's a BBC article, found via the Wikipedia page. Very little additional detail though.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvglkr4p578o
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_O...
We "chouettistes" are thirsty for more as well. There is almost a cult growing out of some hypothesis, we are waiting for the confirmed solutions a bit like the second coming.
Discussed here in 2023 at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37647467
The actual post https://goldenowlhunt.com/the-golden-owl-is-won-after-31-yea...
https://i.imgur.com/ecJeMB7.png
Unlike the Midsomer Murders plot, the organizer died from natural causes. :)
Reminds me very much of the Masquerade book in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book)
That's right. Masquerade by Kit Williams [1] was a phenomena in 1979 - a book of weird illustrations that somehow contained a puzzle as to where a golden hare was buried.
Even a fifteen year-old living in Kansas at the time was drawn to it, got caught up in it.
The golden hare was found after a few years — the whole story of the hare and its finding are well documented in the book by Bamber Gascoigne, Quest for the Golden Hare [2].
The account is a fun read: why Kit decided on buried treasure, how he went about creating the artwork/puzzle, the adventure of burying the rabbit.... But far and away the most fascinating bit describes the various treasure-hunters that then came after the hare.
The party that solved the puzzle did not find the hare. The party that dug it up had not solved the puzzle.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(book)
[2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1176887.Quest_for_the_Go...
Short summary of the whole escapade here: https://youtu.be/3yaHBdhIsCo
I initially confused the title with Maskerade: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maskerade
Note that the ACTUAL organizer of the treasure hunt is not Michel Becker, but Régis Hauser (aka Max Valentin) who died more than 10 years ago.
Michel Becker only helped illustrate the book that is the support for the hunt and has taken over it when he passed.
As far as I know this was quite controversial because he had not knowledge about the riddles or how to solve them, and was only able to take over because there was a notarized enveloped left behind by the original creator which explained everything.
Could you explain more because the author passed away and left the solutions to the riddles in a notarised envelope to a close collaborator who worked on another part of the book so the hunt could live on - the solution is finally found by an unrelated party a whole decade later - doesn’t seem notably controversial to me?
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Trail_of_the_Golden_Owl...
There are more details on the french wikipedia article but basically Michel Becker did everything he could to make money out of the success of the treasure hunt, doing things that were either unethical or deemed contrary to the true creator's original intent. This included taking possession of the solution which wasn't meant for him to get, trying to sell the prize for himself and releasing new clues to renew interest in the hunt which he was still profiting from in different ways.
Damn! Just when I was getting back into it with my 9yo son :(
Seems to be hugged to death. Web archive has a copy for those interested:
https://web.archive.org/web/20241003112400/https://goldenowl...
Edit: Unfortunately, only the home page is archived, not the article it links to.
Here's a copy http://archive.today/qqWbx
Used car buyers, have you checked out Car Owl (https://carowl.co.uk/car/full-history-check/)? Their full history check shows critical info like insurance write-offs and past accidents, which can save you a lot of headaches.
Could o1 have helped the hunters finally reach it?
I tried, it solved a few steps and was quite impressive! It's really good at riddles and associating random concepts.
It got stuck when it had to calculate directions though.