# Schwartz 2025: A C.I.A. Secret Kept for 35 Years Is Found in the Smithsonian's Vault

> John Schwartz, 2025. 5 records on Mysteries Department cite it. Main journalistic source for the archive find.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0D7HSY9E4E6S/a-c-i-a-secret-kept-for-35-years-is-found-in-the  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Sources](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources)[Kryptos](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/kryptos)Schwartz 2025

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# A C.I.A. Secret Kept for 35 Years Is Found in the Smithsonian's Vault

John Schwartz, 2025. _The New York Times, 16 October 2025_.

Breaks the story of Kobek and Byrne's discovery of the K4 plaintext in Sanborn's papers, Sanborn's confirmation, the NDA refusal and the auction house's legal warnings.

**Kryptos** Articledoi: **[10.2307/j.ctv1rmj2h.73](https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1rmj2h.73)** Checked against the original0

## What it's used for here

Main journalistic source for the archive find.

## Cited by on this site 5 records

[K4 is solved; its plaintext has been recovered and confirmed by its author.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/kryptos/answers/ANS0D7HT8SC1PJH/k4-is-solved-its-plaintext-has-been-recovered-and-confirmed)

Answer

ANS

[Five scrambled plaintext pages in the Jim Sanborn papers](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/kryptos/artifacts/ART0D7HTJA2066W/five-scrambled-plaintext-pages-in-the-jim-sanborn-papers)

ART

[Kobek and Byrne assembled a plaintext from archive scraps that matched the released clues in length and…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/kryptos/evidence/EVD0D7HT9167AM4/kobek-and-byrne-assembled-a-plaintext-from-archive-scraps)

Evidence

EVD

[Kryptos](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/kryptos)

The mystery article

MYS

[Is K4 solved, known but withheld, or open?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/kryptos/questions/QST0D7HT7T41TBW/is-k4-solved-known-but-withheld-or-open)

Question

QST

## Cite it

```
Schwartz, J. (2025). A C.I.A. Secret Kept for 35 Years Is Found in the Smithsonian's Vault. The New York Times, 16 October 2025. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1rmj2h.73
```

[Find it at nytimes.com](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/science/kryptos-cia-solution-sanborn-auction.html)

Key

**SRC** 0D7HSY9E4E6S

Kind

Journal article

Rights

The publisher's

Checked

Against the published article

Added by

[apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo)

The record

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