An Antiquities Dealer Buried $2 Million in Treasure in the Rocky Mountains a Decade Ago. Now, an Intrepid Explorer Has Finally Found It

A decade ago, a New Mexico art and antiquities dealer buried $2
million worth of jewels, gold, and artifacts in the wilderness of
the Rocky Mountains and invited would-be treasure hunters to try
and claim it. Now, an unnamed explorer has finally solved the
riddle, finding the treasure that eluded hundreds of thousands of
hunters before him—including at least five who died in the
attempt.

Forrest Fenn, the eccentric millionaire and amateur
archaeologist who buried the loot, announced the news on his
website Sunday. “It was under a canopy
of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains
and had not moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years
ago,” he wrote. “So the search is over.”

New Mexico authorities had urged people to give up the hunt
after Paris Wallace, a Colorado pastor, died in pursuit of the
treasure in 2017. But Fenn refused to call off the contest.

The art dealer, now 89, planted clues to the treasure’s location
in his memoir, The Thrill of the
Chase, self-published in 2010, with a 24-line poem
inviting adventure seekers to search for the 13th-century
Romanesque bronze chest and its valuable contents. He estimates
that some 300,000 people have taken up the challenge over the
years, some quitting their jobs in order to dedicate themselves to
the task.

“I feel halfway kind of glad, halfway kind of sad because the
chase is over,” Fenn told the Santa Fe New
Mexican. “The guy who found it does not want his name
mentioned. He’s from back east.”

The art dealer said the anonymous treasure hunter had sent him a
photograph revealing the hidden trove, said to contain gold dust,
coins, and nuggets, as well as carved Chinese jade, gold
pre-Columbian animal statues, antique jewelry, gemstones, and other
valuable artifacts, had been uncovered at long last.

Already, there is controversy over the discovery,
however. Barbara Andersen, a Chicago real estate attorney, is
filing a lawsuit against the person who found the chest. She claims
she solved the puzzle first, but that the current winner cheated
and beat her to the physical location. “He stole my solve. He
followed and cheated me to get the chest,” Andersen told
the New Mexican.

Fenn was inspired to create the treasure hunt to offer people
who had lost their jobs during the recession some hope, and also to
encourage people to explore the wilderness and seek old-fashioned
adventures. But he didn’t necessarily expect anyone to succeed in
the task.

“I’m actually a little bit shocked, because I hid it in a pretty
good place and lots of people over the years couldn’t find it,” he
told local ABC affiliate Denver7. “But this man
followed the clues in my poem, and they took him right to the
treasure, and that is what it was all about.”

The post An Antiquities Dealer Buried $2 Million in Treasure
in the Rocky Mountains a Decade Ago. Now, an Intrepid Explorer Has
Finally Found It appeared first on artnet News.