Lost and Found and Lost Again
Every day, we leave our wallets on coffee shop counters, forget our phones in Lyfts, and dump out the contents of our bags before realizing, aye, the automobile keys were in our pockets the whole fourth dimension. Only some things that have been lost over the years aren't so mundane—or replaceable. From stolen artworks and disappeared writings to destroyed places, we're counting down thirty of history's most devastating losses.
The Amber Room
Made from several tons of the titular gemstone, the Amber Room has been dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the Earth." Vi tons of amber, precious stones and golden leafage fabricated this 180-foursquare-foot room worth an estimated $142 million. Originally congenital in 1701, the Prussian-built Amber Room was eventually installed at Catherine Palace in Pushkin by Czarina Elizabeth.
But faux wallpaper wasn't enough to hibernate the room from the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Nazis packed it into 27 crates and shipped information technology to a castle museum in Königsberg, Frg. Ii years later, the Amber Room was packed away again, just before a series of bombings. And that'due south where the trail goes cold.
No one has seen it since. For at present, the curious can visit an $11 meg replica just outside St. Petersburg.
Born in 1855, Ned Kelly became Australia's near famous bushranger. Known to many as an Aussie Robin Hood, he became a bonafide fable only earlier his death and, in doing so, the perfect subject field for the world'southward first characteristic-length motion picture.
Infamously, Kelly and his gang ended up in a standoff with the police in 1880. Kelly fashioned himself a suit of armor and snuck upwards on the law surrounding the boondocks he'd taken hostage.
In 1906, director Charles Tait shot the silent pic The Story of the Kelly Gang in Melbourne. The end result? A reel that measured four,000 feet and a film that clocked in at a footling over an 60 minutes. This made information technology the longest narrative—and commencement characteristic-length—picture in the globe. Over the years, bits of the lost picture have been cobbled together into a 17-infinitesimal fragment.
Library of Alexandria
Alexandria's library was the greatest annal of knowledge in the globe—until it vanished. Historians estimate the library housed over one-half a million documents from Assyria, Egypt, Greece, India, and Persia. Though many attribute the Library's destruction to a burn, the truth is shrouded in mystery.
Some pivot the criminal offense on Julius Caesar, while others blame violence that broke out between the Christians, Pagans, and Jewish people inhabiting the city. Some don't recall at that place was a catastrophic fire at all—just slow dissolution over time.
Stranger still, no architectural remains that can be definitively attributed to the Library have ever been constitute.
FIFA's Jules Rimet World Cup Bays
You'd be hard pressed to find an laurels with a better Hollywood backstory than the original Jules Rimet World Loving cup Trophy. First handed out in 1930, the Jules Rimet Trophy was fabricated of gold-plated sterling silver and lapis lazuli. And more than just footballers were eager to merits it.
During Globe State of war 2, Ottorino Barassi, the president of the Italian Football Federation, smuggled the bays from a banking concern and into his apartment. Nazi soldiers tracked the trophy to Barassi'due south home, but failed to open the maximum security shoebox stashed under his bed.
Years afterwards, the trophy was stolen while on display in England, but an intrepid dog named Pickles discovered it in some bushes within days of the theft.
After Brazil won the trophy for a third fourth dimension in 1970, it was displayed in Rio de Janeiro behind bullet-proof glass. Despite these precautions, it was stolen on Dec nineteen, 1983. Most people believe information technology was melted down into golden bars.
Honjō Masamune
The most respected Japanese swordsmith was Goro Nyudo Masamune. He saw the ascension of the samurai form'due south power during what's known as the Kamakura Period (the late 13th and early on 14th centuries). Even today, his blades are highly sought after for their quality and rich history. But peradventure none is more renowned than the lost Honjō Masamune.
The Honjō Masamune received its proper name from one of its get-go owners, Honjō Shigenaga, a general who fought another ranking officer during a battle in 1561. Shigenaga's helmet was cleft in 2 by his opponent, merely the full general withstood the blow and killed his foe.
As was customary, he took his fallen opponent'southward weapon—a Masamune bract. The Honjō Masamune was sold and passed down for years, until the Tokugawa family claimed it as a symbol for their shogunate.
Merely, in the wake of Earth War II, Tokugawa Iemasa handed over his family's prized swords in 1945 to the US Army, including the Honjō Masamune. Since and then, the blade'due south whereabouts have been unknown.
Roanoke
Aside from its starring part in American Horror Story'due south 6th season, Roanoke is best known as the start attempt to set up a permanent English colony in North America. Also called the "Lost Colony," the settlement was established on Roanoke Island in 1585. Merely the country, which is in present-day North Carolina, shows no traces of this former colony.
Later establishing the settlement, most of those involved with the initial settlement returned to England for more supplies, but a small detachment stayed behind. When the settlers returned with supplies, they plant that the contingent they had left backside was gone.
Leader John White left the 115 new settlers in Roanoke and headed back to England for aid. Upon his return in 1590, the unabridged Roanoke Colony had vanished—no artifacts, no bodies. The only clue? The name of a nearby tribe, "CROATOAN," was carved into a tree.
Colossus of Rhodes
The Colossus of Rhodes was erected in the city of—surprise—Rhodes to celebrate the city's victory over Cyprus. Historians believe that the statue was 108 anxiety tall, making it the tallest (known) statue in the aboriginal world. And, in today's terms, roughly the same peak every bit the Statue of Liberty.
I of the Seven Wonders of the Aboriginal World, the Colossus was meant to be the Greek sun god Helios. It was constructed around 280 BCE, but toppled effectually 226 BCE when a massive earthquake struck Rhodes. Dissimilar the remnants of other lost treasures from antiquity, parts of the statue were preserved.
As of 2015, there are plans to build a new Colossus at the entrance to Rhodes Harbor.
Mahogany Ship
Though fishermen and traders from Indonesia, India and China visited the aboriginals of what is now known as Australia for thousands of years, Europeans didn't fix foot on the continent until a 17th century Dutch expedition. Or then it was thought. The discovery of a shipwreck in 1836, merely off the south-western coast of Victoria, near Warrnambool, challenged this unremarkably-held belief.
The whalers who discovered the wreck, one-half buried in sand dunes, claimed information technology was made of dark wood. Hence the nickname the "Mahogany Send." But, most significantly, the ship seemed to be of Portugese origin.
Considering the shipwreck's location was uncertain, at that place haven't been many large-scale expeditions for the Mahogany Ship. Nonetheless, the State Government of Victoria offered wreck-hunters a $250,000 reward in 1992 for the send'due south recovery. Why? Well, if the transport is Portugese it could rewrite Australia's colonial history as we know it.
Parliamentary Mace (Victoria)
Despite its intimidating name, parliamentary mace isn't a weapon. (Anymore.) Instead, it'south a symbol of the Office of the Speaker and the constitutional rights of the people. That's why the theft of the parliamentary mace from Victoria'south Parliament marks ane of Australia's greatest unsolved mysteries.
Made of silver, plated with gold, and decorated with roses, shamrocks, and eucalyptus leaves, the mace was taken just afterward midnight on Fri, Oct nine, 1891. The suspects? Many think the members of the business firm responsible for locking the mace up that night nabbed it. And then brought information technology to a nearby brothel for kicks.
To this 24-hour interval, anyone who finds and returns the mace will earn a lofty $l,000 reward. That's a lot of vegemite.
The Consummate Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer'southward The Canterbury Tales—the blight of many a high schoolhouse English class—contains 24 stories. Meliorate yet, the 17,000 lines of text are all written in Middle English. (Me thynketh, no thanks.) Believe information technology or non, Chaucer just wrote about a quarter of the tales he wanted to include before his death.
That'southward right: The Canterbury Tales were substantially the Game of Thrones (or, more accurately, A Song of Burn down and Water ice series) of the tardily 1300s. The book alternates betwixt the points of view of diverse pilgrims, contains a lot of walking from place to place, and its writer couldn't seem to write rapidly enough to shut out the series.
After a decade of writing, Chaucer penned 24 of his 100 planned stories. And, when he died, some of those tales were even so fragmentary. Now, several versions of particular stories exist. And we'll never know the result of the pilgrims' trek.
Several of Disney's Oswald Shorts
Before Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse debuted in Steamboat Willie (1928), the man behind the mouse worked on some other animated series starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. In total, 27 one-reel "Oswalds" were produced at the Walt Disney Studio earlier Disney lost the rights to the character to Universal Pictures. And while things improved for Disney after the dispute, Oswald'south state of affairs worsened.
For years, information technology was thought that only 19 of the Disney-produced Oswald shorts survived. In 2015, the British Motion picture Institute discovered a missing Oswald short in its archives. A second "lost" Oswald cartoon surfaced in Japan in 2018. Yasushi Watanabe, now 84, had purchased the five-minute motion-picture show Neck 'north' Cervix (1928) decades ago for a mere 500 yen.
While these discoveries are exciting, motion-picture show buffs withal mourn the fact that the other missing "Oswalds" may remain lost.
Leonardo Da Vinci'due south Manuscripts
Leonardo Da Vinci is the Renaissance Man—artist, inventor, writer, and full general overachiever. While his Mona Lisa draws hordes of visitors to the Louvre in Paris every day, he'south as well known for several "alee-of-his-time" inventions, including a prototype for a helicopter-similar flight car. And although a great deal is known about Da Vinci, a great deal of his immense body of piece of work has also been lost.
After his death, Da Vinci's manuscripts were inherited by his student, Francesco Melzi. But when Melzi passed, the manuscripts were scattered—some were stolen, while others were given abroad or lost by Melzi'southward son Orazio. Now, the existing manuscripts contain only one fifth or so of Da Vinci's total body of work.
While fragments have resurfaced, the works are ofttimes difficult to decipher: Da Vinci famously wrote in lawmaking and practiced "mirror writing."
Lost Dutchman's Aureate Mine
Treasure-hunters and thrillseekers still set out to discover a treasure virtually Apache Junction, Arizona that was allegedly buried somewhere back in 1891. Some of these treasure-hunters don't brand it back at all. What's worth risking life and limb in the Superstition Mountains? The "Dutchman's" gold.
German immigrant Jacob Waltz, "the Dutchman" in question, took the undercover of where he hid his gold with him when he died. And why has no one come up close to excavation up the mine? The Superstitions are treacherously steep and the magnetic rock messes with compasses. Worse nonetheless, summers are fatally hot; winters are fatally common cold. And cell phones often fail.
So, why try? George Johnston, who worked at a local museum on the bailiwick, said, "If a mine produces two and a half ounces of gilt per ton of rock, it is a bonanza. Well, the Dutchman'southward gold ore that made that matchbook case assayed out to l ounces per ton."
For some, this potential prize outweighs the risk.
Isabella Stewart Gardner's Fine art
If you head to the Boston-based museum'southward website, you lot'll come across that the investigation into the 1990 theft at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is active and ongoing. In fact, if you have any tips that atomic number 82 to the prophylactic return of all xiii stolen works they'll reward y'all with a cool $ten million.
Nearly 30 years ago, two thieves disguised as police force officers bankrupt into the museum and grabbed the 13 paintings from the walls. That's correct: $500 million—gone simply like that. Among the stolen works were pieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Edgar Degas.
The heist is still known as the largest private property theft in American history. And, in a nod to its history, the Gardner Museum displays empty frames where the stolen works in one case hung.
Sappho'southward Poems
The poet Sappho was dubbed "the tenth Muse" by Plato and known in the aboriginal world for her achieved poetry. During the 3rd century BCE, her poems were collected into a whopping nine volumes, which were subsequently lost or damaged.
After a parody characterized Sappho as a promiscuous lesbian, Pope Gregory burned much of her piece of work in 1073. For awhile, it was thought that only one 20-viii-line poem had survived. But in 1898 that changed.
The commencement of her poetry fragments, written on papyrus, were discovered. Several years later, in 1914, archeologists working in Egypt found coffins made from paper scraps—and on them? More fragmented verses that appeared to be authored by Sappho.
Tree of Ténéré
Northeastern Niger was once domicile to a wood of copse. After desertification took hold, a lone acacia, known equally the Tree of Ténéré, remained. Known every bit the most isolated tree in the earth, the closest copse lie nearly 250 miles away.
Dubbed a "living lighthouse" past Michel Lesourd in the 1930s, the Tree of Ténéré was considered sacred for decades by the nomadic Tuareg people. When Europeans drew military machine maps of the expanse, the acacia became a landmark. But in 1973 this changed when a reportedly drunk driver struck the tree, uprooting it.
To honor the tree, a metal sculpture has been constructed where it once stood. And Niger's National Museum relocated the remnants of the Tree of Ténéré to Niamey for a display.
Crown Jewels of Republic of ireland
If you're anything like united states, the phrase "crown jewels" immediately conjures up a picture of a fancy royal, all decked out in furs and gemstones. Only the Irish Crown Jewels are a tad different. They don't have links to the monarchy, only to an aristocratic group called the Order of St. Patrick. And the gild'due south "One thousand Master" would wear the jewels—well, until the infamous theft in 1907.
Sir Arthur Vicars, who was charged with protecting the Crown Jewels, held two keys to the safety. He kept one of those keys at his home.
Only Vicars wasn't the nigh trustworthy. Once a night of drinking led to his friends stealing his keys and pulling a prank on him. He'd also misplaced his keys a few times. All of this to say, his negligence led to the theft of jewels worth $20 meg.
Amelia Earhart'south Plane
Amelia Earhart famously became the first woman to complete a solo flying across the Atlantic Ocean—also every bit the beginning person to fly solo to Hawaii from the mainland United States. Her next challenge? Unfortunately, circumnavigating the world in her twin-engine Lockheed 10E Electra didn't become also.
In July of 1937, Earhart simply… vanished. Somewhere over the Pacific Body of water, near a refueling stop on Howland Island. Just seven,000 miles from Oakland, California—where she'd initially taken off. Stranger still, her plane wreckage has never been recovered.
Many theories—and conspiracies—accept cropped up effectually this lost-at-bounding main pilot. Some believe Earhart survived for a fourth dimension on Nikumaroro (formerly Gardner Island), where a piece of Plexiglas potentially from the Electra'due south window was found.
Holy Chalice
From Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) to The Da Vinci Code (2006), the Holy Chalice has been the subject of innumerable pop culture quests. The chalice is so coveted because it's the cup Jesus drank from, or served wine from, at the Last Supper. Others believe it was also the vessel used to collect Jesus'due south blood at his Crucifixion.
Despite its ties to Christianity, the chalice became so sought-after due to its clan with a magical item from Arthurian literature—the Holy Grail.
The interwoven stories of the Holy Beaker and Grail inspired several claims that medieval relics, such as the Valencia Beaker and the Genoa Chalice, are The vessels in question. Nevertheless, the location—and existence—of the Holy Chalice is however upwardly for debate among scholars.
Peking Man
The "Peking human" is a proper name given to an extinct hominin of a species you may know—Homo erectus. Back in 1927, an anthropologist identified the Peking human being as part of human lineage, cheers to findings from a single molar found about Beijing. According to the mandibles, limb bones, and teeth uncovered by researchers, these characters walked the earth nearly 770,000 to 230,000 years ago. And then the fossils walked out, too.
Well, sort of. Near 70 years ago, the Peking man fossils vanished. The fossils were kept at Peking Union Medical College, merely in 1941 researchers feared that the Japanese invasion would put the fossils in danger.
They did what any responsible scientist would practise: they tried to smuggle the fossils out of China and to the presumably safer United states. But the boxes of bones never made their connecting flight. One small step for man—and one giant setback for homo evolution research.
Florentine Diamond
Weighing in at 137 carats, this next contender gives the (fictional) Eye of the Body of water a run for its coin. This nine-sided 126-facet double rose cut diamond is pale yellow in colour and hails from India. But despite researchers' cognition of its origins, its path through history is just every bit nebulous every bit its current whereabouts.
The first reported sighting of the Florentine Diamond dates dorsum to the late 1400s when the Duke of Burgundy fell in boxing while wearing it. After that, the diamond made its way to Italy: its declared owners included Pope Julius Ii and the Medici family unit.
In 1736, Maria Theresa of Austria acquired it when she married the Duke of Tuscany, making the Florentine Diamond part of the Austrian crown jewels.
During Earth War I, the ownership records get messy: some say the Germans stole it. Others say the regal family fled with information technology, only to have it stolen and sent to South America where it was presumably sold and recut.
Buddhas of Bamyan
Hewn from sandstone cliffs, the Buddhas of Bayman were two statues—one 115 feet and the other 174 anxiety tall—of Gautam Buddha. Located in the Hazarajat region of Afghanistan, these monuments dated back to the 6th century. These impressive Silk Road statues survived the entrada of Genghis Khan to get a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Merely, in 2001, the statues met a harrowing fate.
On orders from Mullah Mohammed Omar, members of the Taliban destroyed the statues in a dynamite nail. Since they were Buddha statues, the Taliban considered them "idols" and shot at them with anti-aircraft arms. The resilient statues withstood explosives and rocket launchers, before eventually falling victim to the Taliban'southward iconoclasm.
Pyramid at Nohmul, Belize
Located on the Yucatán Peninsula, Nohmul (or Noh Mul) is a Maya archeological site in what is now modernistic-day Belize. The country is known for its lush rainforests and beautiful coral reefs, but what really put information technology on the map was that it is home to one of the 15 ancient Maya sites in the earth. Unfortunately, the site inverse dramatically in 2013.
The main pyramid (like to the one pictured above) in one case towered over the site, coming in at roughly sixty feet tall. But a construction company responsible for building nearby roads bulldozed the pyramid and other mounds in guild to employ the gravel. Now, the main pyramid is gone.
SInce Maya sites are protected by law, officials in Belize plan to those responsible for the devastation to court. Nonetheless, the losses are irreparable.
Plato'due south Hermocrates
Similar every business-savvy writer, Plato was in it for a iii-volume deal. Or, that is, his hypothetical dialogue Hermocrates was meant to round out the trilogy he started with Timaeus and the unfinished Critias. So, what exactly are these dialogues?
They're sort of like monologues delivered by the titular characters. For example, Timaeus is a potentially invented figure who speculates about the nature of the physical world. Critias is a bit more exciting: It recounts how the kingdom of Atlantis tried to conquer Athens.
Historians tin can but speculate about Hermocrates. The speaker might have been the Syracusan politician and general of the same proper noun. It might've shed light on naval powers and strategy.
Though we prefer the interpretation found in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis video game, wherein Hermocrates details the location and culture of Atlantis.
The Consummate Bayeux Tapestry
This impressive tapestry dates back to the 11th century and measures in at 230 feet long and 165 feet tall. And it uses all that area to draw the Norman conquest of England. For seven centuries the tapestry remained safely in the Bayeux Cathedral. In 1792, it was almost cutting into pieces and used as coverings for soldier's carts. Luckily, it escaped that dire fate—for a time.
Since it'due south removal from the cathedral, the last panel(southward) appears to be missing. Though it transferred easily several times during World War Ii—from undercover shelters to German research facilities and, finally, to the Louvre in Paris—it remained relatively unscathed. However, the question of how the tapestry'south narrative ended has puzzled historians.
A team of embroiders worked tirelessly to fill up in the gaps. In 2014, they completed panels that depicted what happened after William the Conqueror won the Battle of Hastings. And though the replica panels match the style of the tapestry, nosotros'll never know what the originals illustrated.
Gospel of Eve
Though there are thought to be around twenty "Lost Gospels," the Gospel of Eve is by far the most intriguing—and controversial. Though fragments of some Lost Gospels be, others were either completely lost to the ages or purposely destroyed by the Catholic Church. So, why weren't these gospels added to the Bible?
Co-ordinate to the church, they were excluded for either A) being of unknown origin, or B) existence authored past heretics. Want to know all near Eve? Well, that'south a bit catchy. It's unclear if a copy of Eve'due south gospel exists these days.
The quotes we do have from the Gospel of Eve indicate that the text advocated for tenants of "gratis dear"—from polyamory to nascency control—and mentioned (gasp) the menstrual cycle.
Bayt al-Hikmah (House of Wisdom)
The Bayt al-Hikmah, or House of Wisdom, could certainly challenge the Library of Alexandria for the title of "Greatest Repository of Knowledge" (Working Title). Established in Baghdad during the eighth century, this impressive library was also a cultural heart for astronomers, philosophers, mathematicians, translators and inventors.
Byzantine researchers were sent to study at this renowned institution. Several languages, including Arabic, Persian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, and Latin, were spoken at the facility. The House of Wisdom truly embodied the merging of intellect, traditions, and cultures from many nations.
But Bayt al-Hikmah met a tragic end when the Mongols invaded during the 13th century, killing the scholars and dumping the books in the Tigris River. It is said that the river flowed cherry-red and black for days from all the claret and ink.
Yongle Encyclopedia
The Yongle Encyclopedia, or Yongle Dadian, was China's—and the world's—largest encyclopedia when information technology was finished in 1408. Bundled past subject field into 22,877 juan (sections), the text was bound into a whopping xi,095 volumes. Only this beautifully illustrated collection went the way of the rest of the objects on our listing.
During the 1500s, it was moved to the Forbidden City for protection. The emperor ordered information technology copied and, not long after, the original was lost, or scattered. Some historians believe the Yongle Encyclopedia was destroyed in a fire that swept through the Forbidden Metropolis during a rebellion. Others posit it was buried with an emperor. A third theory propose it burned in the Qianqing Palace burn down.
Now, only 400 volumes remain. And its "Earth's Largest Encyclopedia" title has been claimed past Wikipedia.
Ur-Village
This to a higher place all: to thine own self exist true—unless you lot can find a wealth of inspiration in someone else. In that case, soak in their work and mode your own in its footsteps. Y'all heard that right. William Shakespeare's Village is non equally original equally your English language teacher may take claimed. First of all, Hamlet is based on a Norse legend. Only, more than importantly, information technology'southward based on another play.
About researchers concord that Shakespeare based his famous tragedy on a play past Thomas Kyd, known as Ur-Village. Of course, as fate would have it, no re-create of Ur-Hamlet exists. All we actually know is that it was performed in London, meaning Shakespeare was (more than than likely) in the know about it.
This OG-Hamlet was too a tragedy that contained a line shouted by a ghost. That line? "Hamlet, revenge!" Very "brevity is the soul of summary," if yous enquire united states.
Jack the Ripper's "From Hell" Letter
Jack the Ripper is London'southward most infamous—and unidentified—serial killer. He had a agonizing penchant for murdering sex workers with anatomical percision, leading to his nickname. The "Jack the Ripper" championship actually originated in a letter from someone claiming to exist the serial killer, though it was later deemed a hoax. The "From Hell" letter, however, is thought to be authentic.
Why? When George Lusk, chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Commission, received the alphabetic character on Oct 15, 1888 it didn't come up with chocolates or flowers. Instead, it arrived with half a human kidney. For this reason, of the thousands of letters allegedly sent from Jack the Ripper to the police, "From Hell" was believed to exist the real deal.
Decades after, fingerprints on the letter might've helped experts crack the case. But some poor record-keeping procedures ruined that notion. The letter—and kidney—are lost, and so don't wait the cast of Criminal Minds to solve this one anytime soon.
Source: https://www.reference.com/history/lost-things-history?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740005%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex
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