From Nazi gold to stolen art: these are the treasures people would love to find

Archeologists unearth stunning discoveries every day but did you know there are a lot of old treasures we know about but still can’t find? Some things have disappeared from the historical record while others have mysteriously vanished.

War, theft, and major disasters have been at the heart of many missing global treasures according to Live Science, which put together a list of archeological items that the world knows are out there somewhere but have yet to be found. 

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One of the most mysterious lost treasures archeologists would love to locate is one that may not even be real: the Ark of the Covenant. This was the chest that contained the 10 commandments and was lost in 587 B.C. after Babylon conquered Jerusalem. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By James Tissot, Public Domain

The Amber Room in Russia’s Catherine Palace is another example of a treasure lost due to war. The palace was captured by Germany in 1941 and the golden walls and mosaics of the room were taken away by the Nazis and have never been seen again. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Branson DeCou, Public Domain

The Irish Crown Jewels were stolen from Dublin Castle in 1907 and the theft is still a big mystery. Who took the jewels and why still isn’t known. But theories suggest the brother of famed explorer Ernst Shackleton, Francis Shackleton, may have stolen them. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Dublin Police, Public Domain

Another Nazi mystery is the location of SS Officer Ernst Kaltenburnner’s sunken gold. It is thought a vast amount of gold was hidden at the bottom of Lake Toplitz to hide it from the Allies, but several searches of the lake have turned up nothing so far. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Cpl. Donald R. Ornitz, Public Domain

The Nazis are actually at the heart of a lot of missing treasures and a lost painting of the famed Renaissance artist Raphael is another example. The lost painting was taken from a Krakow museum and was last seen in 1945 in Hans Frank's collection. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Raphael, Public Domain

A ‘royal casket’ created by Polish Princess Izabela Czartoryska that held many artifacts from the families that used to rule the country was seized by the Nazis after conquering Poland. The casket’s contents have been missing ever since they were taken. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Jannasch, Warsaw, Public Domain

Turning back to lost treasures from our ancient past, historians would love to find some of the many missing poems of the seventh-century Greek poet Sappho. Sappho was a lot like the Shakespeare of her day but nearly all of her work is a mystery to us. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Masur, Own Work, CC BY-SA 2.5

Speaking of Shakespeare, the famous English playwright is thought to have written the play known as ‘Love’s Labour Won’ but no copies of the work have survived until today. Some believe the play is actually ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ but we just don’t know! 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Martin Droeshout, Public Domain

Another written work lost to time are the original four Christian gospels of the bible. The oldest known versions we have are from the second century but many scholars believe the gospels were originally written down in the latter half of the first century. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Andreas Wahra - Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was one of the great Renaissance painters, and his painting ‘Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence’ was stolen in Palermo in 1969. The painting was never found but it has been rumored that the mafia was behind the theft. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Caravaggio, Public Domain

One of the weirdest missing pieces of Renaissance art was that of Leonardo Di Vinci’s lost mural. The mural depicted the 1440 victory of the Italian League and was painted in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio, but it disappeared in 1563. In 2012 an international team said it found the mural, noting it was painted over, but the work was never confirmed. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Guillaume Piolle, CC BY 3.0

The missing Sarcophagus of Menkaure was discovered by the English military officer Howard Vyse but lost to the world after Vyse tried to ship the Sarcophagus to England in 1838. The ship the ancient treasure was sailing on sunk and has never been found. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions

Another great modern mystery is the location of Peking Man’s fossils. Found in 1921, the fossil of Peking Man changed our understanding of humanity’s past but the fossils disappeared in 1941 following the Japanese invasion of China. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Ryan Somma from Occoquan, CC BY-SA 2.0

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What better way to end this list than with a giant missing jewel? The Florentine Diamond was a 137-karat jewel that went missing after the last Austro-Hungarian emperor fled to Switzerland. The diamond entrusted to Bruno Steiner was supposed to be sold, but what happened to the jewel and where it went remains unclear to this day. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Gryffindor - Own Work, CC0