Reward to solve the mystery

ON THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY

of the Marree Man’s discovery in June, businessman (and AG founder) Dick Smith offered a $5000 reward to anyone who could discover who created the artwork, after his own two-year search proved fruitless.

“It’s highly complex and one of the most mysterious things,” Dick has said. “After two years of meeting people, I’m realising that probably one or two weren’t telling me the truth… I reckon some blokes were in a university or a government department and said, ‘We want to test this software, let’s go and put a giant like Cerne Abbas [a chalk figure in Dorset, UK] in the desert.’”

But he’s open to keeping the artist’s identity to himself. “If somebody rang me up and said, ‘Dick, I want the $5000 but on the understanding you won’t tell anyone’, and then gave me the evidence,” he said, “I’ll give them the $5000 and keep it secret.”