The mystery of the enigmatic so-called "monoliths" which have been appearing across the globe has apparently been solved at last, as a group of artists have taken responsibility for the structures.
The first monolith (which resembles the alien monolith found in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey) went viral on social media after being discovered by wildlife resource officers on November 18 in Utah.
The four-meter (12ft) high metal block provoked fervent speculation from conspiracy theorists as to its origins before it seemingly vanished without a trace.
Commenting on the structure, a Utah Bureau of Land Management spokesperson stated:
These vloggers filmed the first monolith before it disappeared:"Although we can't comment on active investigations, the Bureau of Land Management would like to remind public land visitors that using, occupying, or developing the public lands or their resources without a required authorization is illegal, no matter what planet you are from."
The Bureau later revealed that the monolith had disappeared from the site in a statement posted on Facebook, writing:
"We have received credible reports that the illegally installed structure, referred to as the 'monolith', has been removed from Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public lands by an unknown party."
The mystery only deepened when another eerily-similar structure then appeared on Pine Mountain in California on December 2.
A group of hikers uploaded a picture of it to Twitter soon after stumbling upon it. This new monolith provoked just as much speculation as the first.
However, according to a report by The Sun, the monoliths are apparently the brainchild of Santa Fe-based creators The Most Famous Artist.
The group has posted several pictures of the monoliths on their Instagram account, including an image showing one of the steel structures in transit on a dolly near a warehouse.
The group has also shared an image of one of the monoliths being constructed, writing in a caption: "You mean it wasn’t aliens?! Monoliths-as-a-service.com [sic]"
The group then uploaded a picture of one of the monoliths, along with an item description and a hefty price tag of $45,000.
When asked by a follower on Instagram "was it you? in reference to one of the monoliths, the group replied in a comment: "if by you you mean us, yes."
In a later interview with Mashable, the group's founder Matty Mo gave a number of cryptic responses when asked about the project. Mo stated:
"I can say we are well known for stunts of this nature and at this time we are offering authentic art objects through monoliths-as-a-service. I cannot issue additional images at this time but I can promise more on this in the coming days and weeks.
"What better way to end this f***d up year than let the world briefly think aliens made contact only to be disappointed that it’s just The Most Famous Artist playing tricks again?"
However, this revelation fails to account for the appearance of another monolith in Romania last week. This similar structure appeared on BatcaDoamnei Hill in the city of Piatra Neamt, situated in Romania's Neamt County.
Local police conducted an inquiry into the illegally-installed structure, (believing it to be wholly terrestrial in origin) before it too vanished mysteriously.
Per The Daily Mail, Neamt Culture and Heritage official Rocsana Josanu commented on the strange structure before it disappeared, stating:
"We have started looking into the strange appearance of the monolith. It is on private property, but we still don't know who the monolith's owner is yet. It is in a protected area on an archaeological site."
"Before installing something there, they needed permission from our institution, one that must then be approved by the Ministry of Culture."
