Man who found hidden treasure in the Rocky Mountains is revealed
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, December 26, 2024


Man who found hidden treasure in the Rocky Mountains is revealed
Forrest Fenn at his home in Santa Fe, N.M., June 17, 2016. Fenn, an eccentric New Mexico art dealer who enticed thousands to search for hidden treasure after he announced in a 2010 book that he had stashed a bronze chest filled with gold nuggets, diamonds and other jewels somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, died on recently at his home in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 90. Nick Cote/The New York Times.

by Neil Vigdor



NEW YORK (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- The man who found a hidden treasure chest said to be worth about $2 million last summer in the Rocky Mountains — one that had tantalized fortune seekers for a decade, led to at least two deaths and spawned lawsuits against the art dealer who stashed it there — was identified Monday as a medical student from Michigan.

The student, Jack Stuef, 32, discovered the stash of gold nuggets, gemstones and pre-Columbian artifacts June 6 in Wyoming, the grandson of the now-deceased antiquities dealer Forrest Fenn wrote on a website dedicated to the treasure.

Fenn, who died in September at 90, wrote about the hidden treasure chest in a self-published memoir, “The Thrill of the Chase,” in 2010 and provided clues to the location in 24 cryptic verses of a poem.

It set off a modern-day treasure hunt, one in which at least two people died trying to find the cache and prompted a New Mexico State Police chief to urge Fenn to stop the hunt in 2017, saying that people were putting their lives at risk.

Fenn’s grandson Shiloh Forrest Old wrote Monday that his family had been compelled to make public Stuef’s name because of a federal court order in one of the lawsuits in which Fenn had been named.

“We congratulate Jack on finding and retrieving the treasure chest, and we hope that this confirmation will help to dispel the conjecture, conspiratorial nonsense, and refusals to accept the truth,” Old wrote.

Also Monday, Stuef came forward as the author of an anonymous remembrance of Fenn posted on the website Medium in September, in which the writer said he had found the treasure.

Stuef did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but he told Outside magazine in an article published Monday that he learned of Fenn’s hidden treasure in 2018 and became obsessed with recovering it.




“I think I got a little embarrassed by how obsessed I was with it,” Stuef told the magazine. “If I didn’t find it, I would look kind of like an idiot. And maybe I didn’t want to admit to myself what a hold it had on me.”

Stuef did not say where he found the treasure chest, which Fenn had estimated had contained a $2 million hoard that included gold nuggets, coins, sapphires, diamonds and pre-Columbian artifacts.

“Alas, I’m a millennial and have student loans to pay off,” Stuef wrote on Medium, “so it wouldn’t be prudent to continue to own the Fenn Treasure.”

Stuef was coy about the details of the discovery in his tribute to Fenn.

“When I go back some day to lie down beneath those towering pines, tilt my hat over my face to shield against the bright sun, and drift off into one more afternoon nap in that serene forest in the wilds of the Cowboy State, I know he will be resting there next to me,” he wrote. “I hope that place will always remain as pristine as when he first discovered it. Two people could keep a secret. Now one of them is dead.”

Two days after the discovery, a Chicago lawyer filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on June 8 against Fenn and the anonymous person who found the treasure. The lawyer, Barbara Andersen, said that after she had spent several years painstakingly deciphering Fenn’s poem and scouting out the general location of the treasure, someone hacked her cellphone and stole proprietary information that led them to the trove.

In her lawsuit, Andersen asked the court to block the items in the treasure chest from being auctioned and to turn the chest over to her.

A lawyer for the Fenn estate did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday, and efforts to reach Old were unsuccessful.

According to Stuef’s LinkedIn profile, he graduated from Georgetown University in 2010 and had worked as a journalist and for the satire website The Onion. Stuef also wrote for the political blog Wonkette, where he caused a firestorm in 2011 when he mocked the son of former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, who has Down syndrome. He apologized and left the publication.

© 2020 The New York Times Company










Today's News

December 9, 2020

Long-lost Flemish masterpiece discovered in Brussels district hall

Man who found hidden treasure in the Rocky Mountains is revealed

Phillips' Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art realizes $134.6 million

Supreme Court hears Holocaust survivors' cases against Hungary and Germany

Freeman's best Fine Art sale since 2004 achieves $5.2 million

Christie's announces December Design Auction in New York

Hindman once again exceeds estimates in second Antiquities, Islamic & Indian Art Auction

Yoko Ono urges gun control on 40th anniversary of John Lennon's death

First exhibition in Russia dedicated to Cecil Beaton opens at the State Hermitage Museum

The Steve Turner Collection of African Americana once again exceeds estimates at Cowan's Auctions

A quarantine project is a thank-you to nurses

Al Held's first solo presentation in London since 2008 on view at White Cube

Milwaukee Art Museum names Robert Stein as Deputy Director and Chief Experience Officer

Terra Foundation adds Huey Copeland and Clare Muñana to board of directors

A costly quip angers Chinese moviegoers, and a film gets yanked

Leading photography gallery Higher Pictures Generation opens in DUMBO

Tiwani Contemporary now representing Umar Rashid (Frohawk Two Feathers)

'A Suitable Boy' finally finds its perfect match: Mira Nair

New York Philharmonic musicians agree to years of pandemic pay cuts

Independent musicians thrive as pandemic silences Bollywood

Natalie Desselle, comedic heart of 'BAPS' and 'Eve,' dies at 53

Prinseps break auction records for Bhanu Athaiya and Atul Bose

Tatjana Pieters presents an exhibition of works by Indrikis Gelzis

Gallery representing upcoming European talent opens in London's West End

10 Ways to Improve Your Painting Skills

The Algorithm of How to Buy Essay Online Cheap

Going on a Magical Adventure with Photographer and Author Michael Blanchard in His New Book 'Through A Sober Lens

How do I know if I have a wrongful death case

Types of warranties on cars

How does commercial electrical estimating work?

Step by step brief guide to becoming a professional building estimator




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
(52 8110667640)

Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Houston Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง
Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful