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.…
After more than 30 years of searching, by tens of thousands of passionate treasure seekers, France’s elusive Golden Owl was recovered sometime during the night of October 2/3. I wrote about this trouble-plagued contest back in 2021. If you’d like a more detailed version of its dramatic backstory, you’ll find…
In April of 1993, a man calling himself Max Valentin, buried a bronze replica of a golden statue said to be worth 1 million French francs. Valentin claimed that the statue, which resembled an owl in flight, was hidden somewhere in mainland France. The following month, he published a book…
