For 35 years, the fourth passage of a copper sculpture sitting in the courtyard of CIA headquarters has mocked some of the world’s best codebreakers. Now someone owns the answer, and they’re keeping it locked up.

Jim Sanborn’s complete Kryptos archive, including the solution to the infamous K4 passage, sold for $962,500 at an RR Auction that closed on November 20, 2025. That price nearly doubled the high end of pre-sale estimates, which topped out at $500,000.

The puzzle that outlasted the Cold War

Here’s the backstory. Kryptos is an S-shaped copper sculpture dedicated on November 3, 1990, at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Across its surface are roughly 1,800 characters divided into four encrypted…