The treasure hunt really was a free for 'owl' until the item was found
The world's longest treasure hunt is over following an announcement that a golden owl 'worth £200,000' has finally been found.
You wouldn't believe the amount of owlgebra it's taken to find this owl that's been missing for 31 years in France.
It all began when Régis Hauser – the author of treasure hunt book On The Trail Of The Golden Owl – buried a replica of the owl somewhere in France in 1993.
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Once the bronze replica is found, only then the treasure hunter will be rewarded with the real one, made up of gold, silver and diamonds.
According to The Sun, the golden bird was worth one million francs at the time, which is the equivalent of €246,000 (£206,000) in today's money.
Meanwhile, French broadcaster Canal+ estimates that the owl will be worth around €150,000 (£126,000).
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In the book, which was written under the pseudonym Max Valentin, there are 11 riddles that need to be solved in order to locate the hidden treasure.
On Thursday morning (3 October), illustrator of the novel Michel Becker – who took over proceedings when Hauser died in 2009 – made several announcements on the hunt’s official chatline.
His first message read: "A potential winning solution is currently being verified. The verification system is currently locked and no longer allows you to submit your solutions.
"Further information will be communicated to you as soon as possible."
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Two hours later he added: "Don’t go digging! We confirm that the Golden Owl countermark was unearthed last night, simultaneously with a solution upload to the online verification system.
"It is therefore useless to go digging on the location you assume to be the cache. As previously announced, we are verifying the validity of the proposed solution."
Becker wrote: "We confirm that the replica of the golden owl was dug up last night, and that simultaneously a solution has been sent on the online verification system.
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"It is therefore now pointless travelling to dig at any place you believe the cache might be situated."
Last year, Becker made a major change to the rules to stop unnecessary money being spent by owlers checking for solutions around France.
Instead, he asked people to message him their solutions on a website.
The illustrator also wanted to discourage people from digging holes in the French countryside, sometimes breaching local bylaws.
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However, the system was optional for people who still wanted to treasure hunt the old fashioned way.
