SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – More than two years after a roughly $3 million cache of Forrest Fenn's buried treasure was found in Wyoming, most of those spoils are now up for bid.
Heritage Auctions in Dallas has opened a one-time auction with nearly 500 pieces of gold, coins, jewelry, and other items discovered in Fenn's long sought-after treasure chest. A then-32-year-old medical student named Jack Stuef found the treasure in June 2020. A Michigan native, Stuef has since shared multiple blog posts about the discovery.
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A centuries-old gold Diquis/Greater Chiriqui Frog Pendant from Costa Rica or Panama, circa 700-1000 AD. (Courtesy: Heritage Auctions, HA.com) -
A 549-gram Alaskan gold placer. (Courtesy: Heritage Auctions, HA.com) -
A gold pectoral meant to represent the sun, which comes from Columbia, circa 200-600 AD. (Courtesy: Heritage Auctions, HA.com) -
A gold coin. (Courtesy: Heritage Auctions, HA.com) -
A set of items from Forrest Fenn's treasure will be available to bid on at Heritage Auctions beginning Friday, November 11, 2022. (Lynda M. González/Heritage Auctions, HA.com) -
A set of items from Forrest Fenn's treasure will be available to bid on at Heritage Auctions beginning Friday, November 11, 2022. (Lynda M. González/Heritage Auctions, HA.com) -
A set of items from Forrest Fenn's treasure will be available to bid on at Heritage Auctions beginning Friday, November 11, 2022. (Lynda M. González/Heritage Auctions, HA.com) -
A wax-sealed small glass jar purportedly containing at least Fenn's autobiography. (Courtesy: Heritage Auctions, HA.com)
Late last week, on November 11, Stuef revealed he sold the treasure in September to Tesouro Sagrado Holdings LLC. That company is now said to be selling most of the found items.
The late Santa Fe antiquities dealer, Fenn died at the age of 90 in September 2020, just months after revealing the treasure had been found. The treasure hunt started around 2010 after Fenn buried a box of riches in the Rocky Mountain wilderness in 2010; then wrote a cryptic poem about its location in his memoir titled "The Thrill of the Chase." Hundreds of thousands of people are said to have searched for Fenn's treasure for over a decade. Several people even died in the process.
Online, Heritage Auctions' listing page shows hundreds of coins, gold nuggets, gold flakes, gold dust, jewelry and other curiosities from the treasure. One of the most unique items is said to be a 20,000-word autobiography sealed in a tiny glass jar.
In the autobiography, Fenn wrote, "I also wanted to include something personal with the treasure because maybe the lucky finder would want to know a little about the foolish person who abandoned such an opulent cache. So I placed a 20,000-word autobiography in the chest. It's in a small glass jar, and the lid is covered with wax to protect the contents from moisture. The printed text is so small that a magnifying glass is needed to read the words. I tried to think of everything."
The items vary in price from just over ten dollars for gold dust, to more than ten thousand dollars for a gold nugget that's said to be the size of a hen's egg. Those prices are expected to change as the auction is slated to continue through December 12, 2022. For a full look at all of the items, visit Heritage Auction's full "Forrest Fenn's Treasure Chest Showcase Auction" webpage.
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