A mysterious 12-foot-high metal monolith discovered on November 18, 2020, in the desert in Utah has disappeared, according to the Utah Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The object had been removed "by an unknown party", with the location now having just a pile of rocks and a small piece of metal. The BLM said it had not removed "the structure which is considered private property".

The strange metal object was first spotted by a helicopter crew counting bighorn sheep from the air in a remote south-eastern area of Utah. It was located in a red rock slot canyon south of Moab.

News of its discovery and speculation over its origins quickly went viral on social media, with many observers presuming it was an art installation left by a sculptor or something which Aliens had constructed. It reminded many of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 1968 film directed by Stanley Kubrick and the black monolith featured in it. The writings of novelist Arthur C Clarke inspired the Sci-fi epic.

Many people have flocked to the area to try and find the monolith since November 18, despite attempts by the authorities to conceal its location. UFO and Alien hunters were desperate to catch a glimpse, believing it could be extra-terrestrial. The monolith's GPS coordinates have been available on the internet.

The monolith may have vanished, but the mystery of its origins remains.

The helicopter pilot who made the discovery, Bret Hutchings, speculates the monolith may have been installed by "some new wave artist" or a fan of 2001. Officials said it was likely a work of art, but its installation on public land was illegal, "no matter what planet you are from".

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