The artist who created the Kryptos sculpture that is located in the grounds of the HQ of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is to auction the solution to the currently unsolved fourth message on the sculpture. 

Kryptos is a sculpture by the American artist Jim Sanborn that has four encrypted messages on copper panels. Since it was first unveiled in 1990, three of the four messages have been decrypted, but the fourth remains unsolved.  

Kryptos is made up of a piece of petrified wood supporting a large S-shaped copper screen that looks like a piece of paper coming out of a computer printer. On the “paper” are inscribed several enigmatic messages, each written in a different code.  

The CIA says Kryptos contains codes that are important to the history of cryptography. The left half of the copper screen is the encoded text and the right half of the copper screen is a series of alphabets, one above the other and is a keyed Vigenère encryption tableau, consisting of 867 letters. Vigeneries Tableaux were developed by 16th century French cryptographer Blaise de Vigenere.

In Kryptos this chart has been intentionally flipped so it can only be read from the back of the sculpture. The artist used this chart system, in combination with matrix coding systems, to encipher the first three encoded texts on the left side of the screen. The artist designed the fourth section (now referred to as K4) to be very difficult to crack and as of yet, it has not been broken.

The first three sections were cracked by a CIA physicist in 1998. Sanborn had stated that the sculpture contains a riddle within a riddle, which will be solvable only after the four encrypted passages have been deciphered.

Now Sanborn plans to auction the solution to the fourth panel to mark his 80th birthday. Alongside the solution, the auction will include a prototype sculpture, encryption tables, and other related ephemera. 

In a letter to fans, Sanborn said he could "keel over at any minute" and would rest easier knowing things were in control somehow.

Sanborn said the decision wasn't easy to make, but says he no longer has the physical, mental or financial resources to maintain the 97-character code. One problem for Sanborn is that so many people want to break the code. He has received tens of thousands of messages from people trying to solve the code, and this has been increased by numerous "meaningless" AI-generated decryptions. Sanborn's measures to keep on top of the problem include a $50 fee for guesses, and work on an AI-based phone answering system to respond to callers' potential solutions.

The sale will be run by Boston-based RR Auction on November 20, with an estimated sale value of between $300,000 and $500,000. 

More Information

Kryptos Description From CIA

Kryptos Auction Announcement

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