Golden Owl: Hidden for 31 years, the statuette was located in Moselle

The mystery is now solved. The golden owl, the solution to a giant treasure hunt that captivated thousands of participants, was found in October in the village of Dabo, in Moselle, the co-inventor of this enigma announced on Friday, May 2, 2025, 32 years after it was launched.

Michel Becker, who is in charge of this treasure hunt, has been careful with his efforts since the golden owl was discovered on the night of October 2-3, 2024, communicating only sparingly to maintain the interest of the "owl hunters" .

The location of the discovery has been kept secret ever since: those who wanted to learn it had to reserve and pay for their place for one of the 500 screenings of a 1-hour 10-minute documentary, "The Discovery of the Golden Owl," which was only broadcast on Friday and Saturday. The organizers also announced the launch of a new season of this treasure hunt.

The golden owl was buried in April 1993 in a location that had to be identified using 11 puzzles presented in the book "On the Trail of the Golden Owl" . Digging up the replica would allow you to win the owl, a sculpture weighing around ten kilos of precious metal. Its value was initially estimated at one million francs (€150,000).

The puzzle's creator was marketing book author Régis Hauser, who went by the pseudonym Max Valentin and died in 2009. Michel Becker designed the sculpture, which was crafted by a goldsmith. After a long dispute between Becker and Hauser's heirs, the game was relaunched in 2021, with new clues posted on the social network Discord.