Silver monolith vanishes from desert
The mystery of a huge metal monolith discovered in the Utah desert, far from civilisation, may never be solved after it suddenly disappeared overnight.
The tall, silver object was removed by an ‘‘unknown party’’ on Saturday night, the Utah Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said, days after its existence was first disclosed.
‘‘We have received credible reports that the illegally installed structure referred to as the monolith has been removed,’’ the bureau said. ‘‘The BLM did not remove the structure, which is considered private property.’’
The structure was discovered amid red-rock canyons on November 18 by officers from the Utah Department of Public Safety who were flying over in a helicopter, helping to count sheep. It was about 3.5 metres tall.
‘‘One of the biologists . . . spotted it, and we just happened to fly directly over the top,’’ Bret Hutchings, the pilot, told CNN. ‘‘He was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!’
‘‘And I was like, ‘What?’ And he’s like, ‘There’s this thing back there – we’ve got to go look at it!’’’
The circumstances of the monolith’s installation have baffled observers.
Nick Street from the Department of Public Safety said it had been embedded into the rock. ‘‘Somebody took the time to use some type of concrete-cutting tool or something to really dig down, almost in the exact shape of the object, and embed it really well,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s odd. There are roads close by, but to haul the materials to cut into the rock, and haul the metal . . . To do all that in that remote spot is definitely interesting.’’
The art world speculated that the monolith – which drew comparisons with the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey – might have been the work of John McCracken, a minimalist sculptor who was a science-fiction fan and died in 2011 aged 76.
David Zwirner, whose gallery has exhibited McCracken’s work and represents his estate, said he ‘‘believe[d] this is definitely by John’’ but admitted that ‘‘the gallery is divided on this’’.
Patrick McCracken, the artist’s son, recalled his father telling him that ‘‘he would like to leave his artwork in remote places to be discovered later’’.
He told The New York Times that his father ‘‘was inspired by the idea of alien visitors leaving objects that resembled his work, or that his work resembled.
‘‘This discovery of amonolith piece – that’s very much in line with his vision.’’
He added: ‘‘He wasn’t your average sort of dad. He believed in advanced alien races.’’