the final zone. Many readers had already reached the conclusion that such a technique must exist. The existence of a final, hidden riddle that completes the game. When a reader finds this riddle in the final zone, he or she will be able to utilise elements of the previous riddles to form and solve the last riddle. The decryption of the last riddle will lead to the cache that contains the owl. In 1995, Valentin said that the book's readers have collectively got 95% of the solution, but as they are not sharing and communicating their solutions, they can't get the last 5%. He also said that when he was checking on the cache of the owl in August 1995, he found some earth overturned about from it, but that he was unable to tell if it was done by an animal, or by a treasure-seeker. In 1996, Valentin said that the "remainders" are the key to the owl, and that they can be found in the decryption of some of the ten riddles that have wavelengths. Theories Lawsuits Hauser ("Max Valentin") died in 2009, leaving the secret to the puzzle inside a sealed envelope. The solutions are now held by his lawyer. In 2004, the original publisher of the book went bankrupt, and The Golden Owl statuette was seized as part of its liquidation. The creators recovered it in 2008. In 2011, Michel Becker, the co-creator of the hunt, claimed sole ownership of the Golden Owl statuette, and intended to sell it. Two judicial decisions stopped this from taking place. The treasure-hunter association A2CO played an important role in the preservation of the prize, and the whole community raised petitions to support A2CO's lawyers. Legacy The creators of Montecrypto: The Bitcoin Enigma, a treasure hunt game released on 20 February 2018 which offered a prize of 1 Bitcoin to the winning player, cited On the Trail of the Golden Owl. See also Masquerade, a 1979 book credited with popularizing the armchair treasure hunt genre The Secret (treasure hunt), a similar concept by publisher Byron Preiss begun in 1982 and still not completely solved Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse, a 1984 multimedia treasure-hunting puzzle References Information (English) Additional information (French) Public Answers Database (French) (requires login) Riddles Synthesis (French) Notes Puzzle books Puzzle hunts Word puzzles Logic puzzles Outdoor locating games