As soon as it mysteriously arrived, a metal monolith discovered by Utah public safety personnel last week was now gone, officials said Saturday.
The three-sided metal formation was removed from public land “by an unknown party” on Friday evening, the Utah office of the Federal Bureau of Land Management said in a statement.
The bureau said it has not removed the monopoly, which it considers “private property.”
The Utah Department of Public Safety said Monday it found the substance while conducting a survey for beaver sheep.
“It’s gone!” The Department of Public Safety said in an Instagram post responding to the news. “Almost as soon as it appears, it has now disappeared,” the department said. Added, “I can only guess” that the aliens took it back using an outside world emoji.
“Maybe he’ll stop and visit us in Canada !!” One person commented.
It was a mystery how the monolith was installed in the first place. A spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, Lieutenant Nick Street, said the stubborn stone was embedded.
“Someone sometimes used some kind of concrete cutting tool to cut concrete or something to cut down, almost to the exact shape of the object, and took the time to embed it really well.” “It simply came to our notice then. There are roads nearby, but to move objects to cut through the rock, and to carry the metal, which is 12 feet high in sections – it is certainly interesting to do it all in a remote place. “
Officials said the structure was largely a work of art and its installation on public land was illegal. It was unclear who put it there – and when – but the art world quickly guessed it was the work of John McCracken, who is fond of science fiction. He died in 2011.
His son, Patrick McCracken, told the New York Times this week that his father had told him in 2002 that “he wanted to leave his art in remote places for later detection.”
Authorities declined to reveal the location of the monolith, which was searched by some. David Serber, who visited the constitution this week and posted a video of it on Instagram, said it was located near the Lockhart Basin Road, south of Moab.
The Bureau of Land Management said it would not investigate the disappearance because “private property crimes” are handled by the local sheriff’s office fees. San Juan and Grand County Sheriff’s ices Fiso did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Surber, who traveled to Monolith, posted on his Instagram story on Saturday night about his disappearance. “Obviously the monopoly is gone,” he said. “I believe nature returned to its natural state.”
