04-05-2025
French puzzlers gear up for second Golden Owl treasure hunt
The quest for the first Golden Owl was said to have driven its devotees to divorce, bankruptcy and madness. Now, as a second hunt is set to begin, many of the 200,000 'owlers' feel cheated.
Some said they suspected that one of the world's most famous armchair treasure hunts, which lasted 31 years, had been little more than a giant publicity stunt.
The original hunt was started in 1993 by Régis Hauser, a French puzzle designer, who published a book called Sur la Trace de la Chouette d'Or (On the Trail of the Golden Owl) under the pseudonym Max Valentin. The book contained 11 cryptic clues to the whereabouts of a bronze statuette of an owl that Hauser said he had buried somewhere
