The Golden Owl®
The biggest treasure hunt in France is soon celebrating its 30th anniversary
For 29 years, the copy of a gold owl worth 150,000 euros has been buried somewhere in France. Seeking to solve the 11 enigmas, more than 200,000 people are on the trail of the Golden Owl ®, some "burn" perhaps, but no one has yet found. The creator of this giant treasure hunt had imagined that the eleven puzzles in the book would be solved in just a few months. However, 29 years later, the mystery remains intact...
The treasure
On the night of April 23 to 24, 1993, Max Valentin buried a box containing a bronze owl. No one but him knows the location. The winner will have to exchange this bronze copy for the real Chouette d'Or®. If the real owl, in gold and silver, must be exhibited at the Lingot d'Art de Rochefort (Charente-Maritime), its bronze replica is still buried somewhere in France and remains untraceable.
How to participate ?
To win, you have to solve eleven puzzles published in a book of about forty pages that you will find below.
Each puzzle is represented by a cryptogram and a visual. There are eleven of them, but we now know that a mega-trick can link them together and give the final solution.
So far, the first nine puzzles have been solved. For the others, everyone has their own theory.
Message from Michel Becker, the creator
His message
"The Golden Owl has now become a real phoenix. After 13 years, it reappears even more beautiful and bigger than before."
Michael Becker