Somewhere in France, a small statuette of a bird in flight has emerged from the soil in which it has lain buried for more than three decades. The quest for the golden owl, one of the world’s longest-running treasure hunts, appears finally to be over.

“A potentially winning solution is being verified,” read a post on the hunt’s official chatline, published at 6.11am on Thursday. “No more solutions may be submitted. Further information will be communicated as soon as possible.”

Just over two hours later, at 8.26am, came a second post on the Discord platform: “Do not keep digging! We confirm that the replica of the golden owl was unearthed during the course of last night, and a solution simultaneously submitted.”

The writer was Michel Becker, a French artist who illustrated Sur la Trace de la Chouette d’Or (On the Trail of the Golden Owl), a picture book published in 1993, and sculpted the gold-and-silver owl that was promised to whoever could first solve the clues hidden in its pages.

The hunt was inspired by Masquerade, the artist Kit Williams’ 1979 British bestseller that sold more than a million copies and sparked – until it was found, three years later in a park in Bedfordshire – a national search for an 18-carat, jewel-encrusted gold hare.

Under the rules of the French quest, whoever found the bronze replica owl was entitled to exchange it for Becker’s original, whose worth when the book was first published was estimated at 1m francs, the equivalent today of almost €300,000.

However, the finder also had to demonstrate that they had been led to the spot where the replica was buried by correctly solving 11 arcane riddles set by the book’s author, Max Valentin, and not by other means, such as a metal detector.

The quest for the golden owl lasted 31 years. A dedicated army of tens of thousands have taken part and the hunt has gained popularity since the arrival of the internet. It has even been cited in divorce proceedings.

Online forums enabled the treasure hunters – known in French as chouetteurs – to swap notes and theories and build an online database. Over the years, they arrived at a consensus on how several of the enigmas should be interpreted.

However, no one had succeeded in resolving a final, hidden 12th riddle – made up of assorted bits of the main 11 – and many older chouetteurs complained that the endless realms of possibility served up online had complicated their task.

The quest has prompted several court cases, including one brought by Becker himself against Valentin’s family to obtain the precise whereabouts of the buried bird after the author, whose real name was Régis Hauser, had died in 2009.

At the time, the sculptor had the golden owl in his possession but not the sealed envelope in which Valentin – the only person who knew where the bird was buried – had placed the solutions to his riddles, which was in the hands of the author’s heirs.

Becker was also taken to court some years ago by furious chouetteurs after he tried to sell the owl. A judge eventually ruled that the sculpture could not be sold because it legally belonged to the person who found the replica.

Apparently eager for the decades-long hunt to end, in recent years Becker has further aroused the ire of chouetteurs by releasing more and more clues to the location of the replica bird.

On Thursday, many expressed regret the quest was over. The news was “a real blow”, one community member said on the forum. “Hard to bear”, said another, while a third added: “I have to admit, I shed a few tears.” Another, however, said they were “curiously, quite relieved … I’m free!”

Most wanted to know two things: who had disinterred the replica, and where exactly it had been buried. By Thursday afternoon, neither had been disclosed.

Some community members suspected foul play, but others were grateful. “I’ve only been a chouetteur since lockdown, but I’ve had the most incredible adventure with this family – dysfunctional, certainly, but so colourful,” said one.

The world’s longest-running treasure hunt is believed to be The Secret, by Byron Preiss, published in 1982. It involves a search for 12 boxes of treasure buried at secret locations in the US and Canada, only three of which have been found.