Yet it was eventually recovered not by an avid treasure hunter, but by the business partner of Williams’s former girlfriend, who knew its general location.Įven after its discovery, treasure seekers set out armed with shovels and maps. The book sold 2m copies, with hundreds of readers claiming they had solved the riddles and found the hare.

The eyes and hands of his characters gestured toward letters in the text that could be joined together into sentences that suggested the pendant’s location. He embedded complicated clues in 15 paintings which he published as the children’s book Masquerade. The artist created his hare out of 18-carat gold, encrusted it with ruby, mother of pearl and moonstones and sealed it inside a ceramic casket to foil metal detectors. Long before the current fad for hiding cash in public places, with Twitter accounts like dispensing clues and causing frenzied scenes in the US, Williams sparked a global obsession – and became a virtual recluse in the process.

One man wrote to Williams every day, in letters of up to 7,000 words, detailing where he thought the hare could be. Over the following three years, the jewelled pendant became the focus of an international craze, as treasure hunters followed clues hidden in a children’s book to uncover it.Ī Swiss family spent their life savings in their search, while Japanese, Danish, German and American hunters were convinced they would find the treasure in Big Ben or Edinburgh Castle.

In 1979, the British artist Kit Williams buried a golden hare in a Bedfordshire hillside.

Kit golden hare