The Complex and Controversial Saga of the Golden Owl

As I wrote last month, France’s 31-year-old treasure hunt for a Golden Owl statuette finally ended sometime during the night of October 2/3, 2024. Michel Becker, one of the contest’s organizers, announced that a single person had managed to solve the 11 puzzles that led to a buried bronze replica. Becker assured participants that he had verified the winning solution. The contest was over and treasure seekers should lay down their shovels and STOP DIGGING. He would soon provide more information.

In the days that followed, hundreds of contestants, some of whom had been searching since 1993, impatiently checked their inboxes, outside media sources, a Discord forum, and the hunt’s YouTube channel for the update. Becker’s promised announcement would disclose not only the winner of the contest but also the 11 solutions that many among them had spent more than a decade trying to discover. The Golden Owl was now beyond their reach, but they were understandably eager to learn how close they’d come to finding it themselves.

Ten days after Becker’s declaration, he posted a video on Youtube that received tens of thousands of views within days. The long-anticipated reveal was sorely disappointing. I’ve spent much of this week researching questions raised by Becker’s 10-minute presentation. In the process, I learned about aspects of the hunt’s problematic history that I was previously unaware of. What follows is a refresher of the original story, peppered with a handful of dramatic new twists.

The Elusive Golden Owl

For 31 years, the backbreaking quest to locate the Golden Owl drove more than one hundred thousand participants (known as chouetteurs) all over France looking for a buried bronze replica of the grand prize—a gold and silver owl, studded with chips of precious stones. In 2009, after the sudden death of the treasure hunt’s architect, Regis Hauser, many gave up the search, believing the puzzles would never be cracked.

In 2021, however, after years of legal battles, Hauser’s partner, Michel Becker, obtained ownership of the hunt’s 11 solutions. Initially, Becker hadn’t been privy to the location of the buried replica nor the answers to any of the puzzles. In 2014, he had tried to sell the bejeweled grand prize, which was in his possession. Having financed the bird’s fabrication, Becker saw himself as the rightful owner of the statuette, and with Hauser gone, the likelihood of someone finding the replica seemed slim to none. But when hundreds of outraged chouetteurs filed legal complaints to stop the sale, Becker withdrew the glittering owl from the auction block.

At the time, the only people who had access to the solutions were Hauser’s lawyer and Hauser’s one surviving child. Becker eventually came to an agreement with these inheritors, granting him a copy of the solutions. He then relaunched the hunt and promised the angst-ridden treasure seekers that he would hand over the valuable prize to anyone who unearthed the replica and presented correct solutions to all 11 puzzles—stipulations of Hauser’s original hunt.

A Fly in the Ointment

However, there was a catch. Becker revealed that with the solutions in hand, he now knew the exact location of the bronze replica. He had gone there and dug it up to ensure that it still existed. Becker exalted Hauser’s brilliance and assured the chouetteurs that their hunt was not in vain, emphasizing that he fully supported the contest and would honor, to the letter, all of Hauser’s wishes. He ended with an unexpected and flabbergasting hitch, disclosing that he had replaced the buried replica with a second replica.

Becker claimed that the owl he had dug up was not the original bronze statue that he had fabricated for Hauser. It was encased in rust, indicating that the metal used contained iron. He wasn’t sure why Hauser had replaced the first replica with one of inferior quality but luckily, Becker explained, he had made more than one bronze copy and had decided to bury bronze replica #2 in the exact same spot.

The chouetteur community immediately divided into two new camps: those who believed Becker and felt they were indebted to him for restoring their quest and those who thought his story contained too many suspicious elements. However, the hunt continued with both sub-groups determined to be first to reach the owl.

The pro-Beckers were happy that their new leader was generously offering his guidance and occasionally dropping new hints on Discord. The anti-Beckers were more determined than ever to find the original replica, believing it was still sitting safely in its original hiding place. The contest winner would not only receive the actual Golden Owl, but also prove that Becker’s story about the iron replica was a lie.

The Big Reveal

On October 13, 2024, Becker uploaded to YouTube his feverishly-awaited response regarding the hunt’s conclusion. The ten-minute clip features the silhouette of a bald man, backlit by a luminous abstract painting signed by the artist, becker. One assumes the shadowy figure is Becker but it’s impossible to know. A professional-sounding voice that doesn’t track with the movements of the silhouette provides the latest information related to the statue’s discovery, but much of the presentation is cloaked in mystery.

Speaking in the first person, the voice summarizes the process that Becker used to obtain the submitted solution and verify its correctness. The voice tells viewers that the identity of the winner—be they man, woman, or team—doesn’t matter and will never be revealed. It alleges that the victor insists upon anonymity and that he, Becker, is bound to uphold their request. It explains that since the death of Hauser, Becker has been forced to withstand numerous threats and accusations of fraud, and has had to defend himself against dozens of baseless recriminations. The new owner of the Golden Owl doesn’t wish to draw the same heat.

More important to most chouetteurs, however, are the solutions to the 11 puzzles that they’ve spent decades trying to solve. The voice explains that they’ll need to wait until April 2025, the 32nd anniversary of the contest’s debut. In the meantime, Becker plans to produce a documentary film that overviews the contest’s history, showcases the lives of several devoted chouetteurs, and meticulously explains each of the 11 solutions. He encourages his followers to submit their most alluring anecdotes for consideration in the film.

A Dedicated Servant

For now, Becker claims, the Golden Owl is no longer in France. Perhaps it was recovered by a foreigner or perhaps a French person has stowed it in another country for safekeeping. Becker contends that a secondary anonymous character presented a bonafide offer of 300,000 euros to buy the winged statue from its new owner, but the offer was declined. Perhaps a higher bid will prove attractive. Becker’s virtuous hope is that someday the owl will reside in a museum of his creation, devoted to Hauser’s ingenious treasure hunt.

The video paints Becker as a faithful servant to the long-running search and its persistent participants. As evidence of this claim, the voice transmits a series of impartial facts. Since, November of 2021, the Discord forum that serves as a communal sounding board for the chouetteur community has received 6,600,000 messages, of which Becker submitted around 4,700. Of the 10,628 questions that have been posted there, Becker replied to 7,926 of them.

The video states that Becker has privately received tens of thousands of requests for information that he’s personally handled but that all private communications must and will remain forever secret. Since its debut in 2021, Becker’s online verification site, which for a small fee automatically checks proposed solutions to the puzzles, has received 22,531 submissions. Only one of those submissions, the one from October 2, 2024, that came in at 23:22:20, is correct.

The video terminates on a humble note. Although Becker has been hounded by the press to grant an interview, he is not interested in publicity or fame and intends to remain unreachable and “in the shadows”. I suspect that many chouetteurs remain frustrated with Becker’s evasiveness. However, he does offer them a consolation prize. On April 24, 2025, he intends to launch a new treasure hunt for a second Golden Owl.

What Say Ye?

So what do you think? If you were invested in the hunt for the Golden Owl, would you fall into the pro- or anti-Becker camp? Why? What might Becker do to soften your doubts? Might you be tempted to supply him with material for his upcoming film? I’d love to know your assessment of this controversial story.

Special Thanks to Le Monde

I had difficulty tracking down many of the perplexing questions that plagued my research for this story. Most French reports contain a partial summary of events. Each new article I came across either failed to fill all the gaps in my understanding or created new questions for me to pursue. On October 6, 2024, however, the daily French newspaper Le Monde, tasked reporter Morgane Tual to spend a day answering questions posed by readers. Tual had been closely following the story and between her expert answers and the comments and questions of a small battalion of chouetteurs, much more of the picture became clear.