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Another mysterious monolith has disappeared, in Romania

After a similar structure appeared and vanished in Utah, another goes bye-bye, this time in Europe.

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Abrar Al-Heeti is a technology reporter for CNET, with an interest in phones, streaming, internet trends, entertainment, pop culture and digital accessibility. She's also worked for CNET's video, culture and news teams. She graduated with bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Though Illinois is home, she now loves San Francisco -- steep inclines and all.
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2 min read
monolithaerobureau

After this monolith was discovered in Utah, another was apparently spotted in Romania... before also disappearing.

Utah Department of Public Safety Aero Bureau

In case you thought the story of the mysterious metallic monolith couldn't get any weirder, just remember it's 2020 and anything's possible. After the surprising discovery and subsequent disappearance of a monolith in the middle of the Utah desert earlier this month, it seems a similar object was found in Romania -- before also disappearing.

A structure that appears to be identical to the one in the Utah desert was found on Batca Doamnei Hill in Romania on Nov. 26, according to The Mirror. But it didn't remain for very long; according to a Tuesday report by Reuters, the Romanian monolith disappeared four days later.

"The 2.8 metre (9ft) tall structure disappeared overnight as quietly as it was erected last week," journalist Robert Iosub of the Ziar Piatra Neamt local newspaper told Reuters. "An unidentified person, apparently a bad local welder, made it ... now all that remains is just a small hole covered by rocky soil."

When Utah's Department of Public Safety first found the 2001: A Space Odyssey-esque monolith, people wondered whether it had been the work of aliens, or perhaps artwork by sculptor John McCracken, who died in 2011. We still don't know all the answers, or who ultimately removed the Utah structure, but some Reddit users speculate the monolith could have been a leftover Westworld prop or a McCracken piece.

In a statement last week, officials from the Bureau of Land Management in Utah said the monolith was gone, but they don't know who took it. 

"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 statement said. "The BLM did not remove the structure which is considered private property. We do not investigate crimes involving private property which are handled by the local sheriff's office."