Last week, a strange monolith was found in the wild, in Utah.?
The mysterious tall, silver, shining metal structure was spotted by a team of officers flying by in a helicopter, helping out wildlife division count bighorn sheep in southeastern Utah.?
The pilot of the helicopter, Bret Hutchings, said the structure was between 10 and 12 feet high. It looked like the structure was specifically placed there for a purpose.
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However, now the Bureau of Land Management made an official statement that the structure was probably removed by an "unknown party" on Friday night.??
The statement further read, 'We have received credible reports that the illegally installed structure, referred to as the 'monolith,' has been removed from BLM public lands. The BLM did not remove the structure, which is considered private property'.
The post added, 'We do not investigate crimes involving private property which are handled by the local sheriff¡¯s office. The structure has received international and national attention and we received reports that a person or group removed it on the evening of November 27'.
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Local authorities had not revealed the location of the artwork due to the fear that people might go out to look for it in the middle of the redrock canyon, which is a difficult area to access.?
However, tourists apparently already went and sought out the structure before its disappearance.?
Hutchings had guessed that the metal monolith was placed there by an artist. He had said it must be by somebody who was a big 2001: A Space Odyssey fan.