Fenn hid the treasure in order to expose people to old-fashion adventures and expeditions along with tempting them to venture into wilderness.(AP Photo/Jeri Clausing)

A treasure chest with items worth at least $2 million has finally been discovered, ten years after an art collector hid it somewhere in the Rocky Mountains in North America.

Forrest Fenn, a New Mexico framed art and antiquities collector, created the treasure hunt after learning he had kidney cancer. Even though Fenn went on to recover from the disease, he hid a bronze chest filled with gold nuggets, coins, diamonds, pre-columbian artefacts and other items, and left clues in a self-published memoir called “The Thrill of the Chase”. The treasure’s location was embeded in a 24-verses cryptic poem, the New York Times reported.

A man finally found the chest that was hidden in the Rockies at 5,000 feet above sea level, according to Fenn. Talking to The Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper, Fenn said that man confirmed the find by sending him a photograph. He prefers to be anonymous, Fenn added. The treasure chest weights 9 kg and its content weighs another 10 kg, the Guardian reported.

The last decade saw tens of thousands of treasure seekers searching in vain. Many ventured into dangerous territories, many left their jobs and at least 2 people have died whilst following the clues. Fenn also faced accusations of putting people’s lives in danger, while others believed the hunt to be a hoax.

Mr. Fenn declined to retrieve the chest, however. “If someone drowns in the swimming pool we shouldn’t drain the pool,” Mr. Fenn told The New York Times that year. “We should teach people to swim.”

Till 2018, an estimated 3,50,000 people went searching for Fenn’s treasury, The Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper reported.