The Unraveling of Kryptos
One of the world's most renowned unsolved codes may have met its match recently, as two friends from the United States claim they’ve discovered the secret at the heart of "Kryptos"—the enigmatic copper sculpture installed at CIA headquarters in Virginia in 1990. While three out of four encrypted messages in the sculpture have been decoded, the final section, K4, stood unsolved for over three decades, perplexing cryptography experts and enthusiasts alike.
Background and Auction Details
Artist Jim Sanborn, now 80, created the sculpture and has been inundated with guesses regarding the elusive K4 passage. Reaching a breaking point, he began charging $50 per solution attempt. In August, Sanborn announced that he would auction off the exact 97-character solution to K4 due to no longer having the “physical, mental or financial resources” to continue overseeing the mystery. The solution, set to fetch well over $240,000, has attracted broad interest, reflecting its influence on popular culture, including inspiring author Dan Brown.[1]
The Surprise Revelation
In October, two friends—writer Jarett Kobek and journalist Richard Byrne—surprised both the auction house and Sanborn by announcing they'd uncovered the final Kryptos message. Their breakthrough came after Kobek noticed a reference to Sanborn’s archive at the Smithsonian Institution in the auction catalog. Byrne sifted through the collection, photographing materials related to Kryptos. Upon reviewing the images, Kobek quickly realized they had stumbled onto significant, previously unseen clues.
"I took images of all the coding stuff in the files," Byrne recalled. "A few hours later, Kobek called him and said 'Hey, you might have found something interesting.'" Using Byrne’s archive photos and Sanborn’s past clues, Kobek unraveled the K4 message.[1]
Reactions and Legal Pressures
After Kobek and Byrne revealed their findings to Sanborn, they were met not with congratulations, but with alarm. Sanborn requested they sign non-disclosure agreements in exchange for a share of the auction proceeds. Kobek refused, stating:
"The NDA is a total non-starter. You are running an auction where what you are selling is intellectual property exclusivity. If I take money from that sale, I feel like this would almost certainly make me party to fraud."[1]
Despite having no intention to disrupt the auction or release the code, the two received cease-and-desist letters from the auction house. Sanborn, now realizing he had inadvertently archived critical scrambled texts, explained:
"The scrambled plain text was found, but without the coding method or the key. This is a very important distinction… The discovery does not end the mystery of Kryptos."[1]
The Auction Continues
Sanborn acknowledged the error of including sensitive text scraps in his archives but downplayed the breakthrough, emphasizing that the pair did not possess the encryption key. As the auction continues, Sanborn has hinted at a fifth message, K5, to be released with its own unique coding process.
Author’s Summary
Amidst global intrigue, the Kryptos saga reached new intensity when two researchers uncovered clues in public archives, highlighting both the magnetism of mysteries and the complexities of artistic secrecy.