Lost artworks
Lost artworks are original pieces of art that credible sources indicate once existed but that cannot be accounted for in museums or private collections or are known to have been destroyed deliberately or accidentally, or neglected through ignorance and lack of connoisseurship.
The US FBI maintains a list of "Top Ten Art Crimes"; a 2006 book by Simon Houpt and several other media outlets have profiled the most significant outstanding losses.
Chronology of notable loss events
- Rhodes earthquake, 226 BCE
- First Mithridatic War
- Antikythera shipwreck, 86-50 BCE
- Lauseion fire, 475
- Nika riots, 13 January 532-
- Byzantine Iconoclasm
- Jin–Song Wars, 1125–1234
- Fourth Crusade, 1202–1204
- Bonfires of the vanities, 1492–97
- *Bonfire of the vanities, Florence, 1492
- *Bonfire of the vanities, Florence, 7 February 1497
- Palazzo Bentivoglio destruction, 1507
- Iconoclastic Fury, 1522–99
- Doge's Palace fire, 1576
- Bombardment of Brussels, 13–15 August 1695
- Palace of Whitehall fire, 4 January 1698
- Coudenberg Palace fire, 3 February 1731
- Royal Alcázar of Madrid fire, 24 December 1734
- Kroměříž Palace fire, March 1752
- Lisbon earthquake and tsunami, 1 November 1755
- Vrouw Maria sinking, 9 October 1771
- French Revolution, 1789–99
- Elgin Marbles removal, 1801–1805
- Exton Old Park fire, 1810
- Belvoir Castle fire, 1816
- Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura fire,1823
- Burning of Parliament, 16 October 1834
- Palais-Royal looting, 21–22 February 1848
- Library of Congress fire, 24 December 1851
- Old Summer Palace destruction, 18–21 October 1861
- Museum Boymans fire, 1864
- Paris Commune, 18 March-28 May 1871
- Holker Hall fire, 1871
- Great Boston Fire of 1872
- Bath House fire, 31 January 1873
- Benin City sacking, 9 February 1897-
- Messina earthquake, 28 December 1908
- Mona Lisa theft and vandalism, 21 August 1911
- World War I, 28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918
- Russian Revolution and post-revolution losses, 1917-1920s
- Thames flood, 7 January 1928
- Glaspalast fire, 6 June 1931
- Nazi plunder, 1933–1945
- Panels from the Ghent Altarpiece theft, 10 April 1934
- Spanish Civil War, 1936–39
- World War II, 1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945
- Kronberg Castle looting, 5 November 1945
- Arno Breker Sculpture Destruction, 1945-
- Arshile Gorky studio fire, 1946
- Alfred Stieglitz Gallery theft, 1946
- Musée de Beaux Arts de Strasbourg fire, 13 August 1947
- Coleshill House fire, 1952
- Museum of Modern Art fire, 15 August 1958
- American Airlines Flight 1 plane crash, 1962
- Dulwich College Picture Gallery theft, 30 December 1966
- Izmir Archaeology Museum theft, 24 July 1969
- Oratory of San Lorenzo theft, October 1969
- Stephen Hahn Gallery theft, 17 November 1969
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts theft, 4 September 1972
- Musée Albert-André, Bagnols-sur-Cèze, theft, 12 November 1972
- Invasion of Cyprus church thefts, 1974
- Russborough House art theft #1, 1974
- Palais des Papes Picasso theft, 31 January 1976
- Corridart installation destruction, Montreal, 1976
- Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro fire, 8 July 1978
- Varig plane disappearance, 30 January 1979
- L.A. Mayer Institute for Islamic Art theft, 15 April 1983
- Kunsthaus Zürich incendiary attack, 1985
- Musée Marmottan Monet theft, 28 October 1985
- Russborough House art theft #2, 1986
- Neue Nationalgalerie theft, 27 May 1988
- Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft, 18 March 1990
- Lincoln's Inn theft, 16 September 1990
- Houghton Hall theft, 30 September 1992
- Windsor Castle fire, 20 November 1992
- Uffizi car bombing, 1993
- Moderna Museet theft, 8 November 1993
- The Scream theft, 12 February 1994
- Kunsthalle Schirn theft, 28 July 1994
- Stéphane Breitwieser: 172 museum thefts, 1995–2001
- Oklahoma City bombing, 19 April 1995
- Galleria Ricci Oddi theft, 18 February 1997
- Louvre theft, 3 May 1998
- Swissair Flight 111 plane crash, 2 September 1998
- Ashmolean Museum theft, 31 December 1999
- Nationalmuseum theft, 22 Dec 2000
- Russborough House art theft #3, 2001
- National Museum, Poznań theft, September 2000
- Sofia Imber Contemporary Art Museum theft, 2000–2002
- Taliban iconoclasm, March 2001
- Hermitage Museum theft, 22 March 2001
- September 11 attacks, 2001
- Marielle Schwengel's destruction of stolen art, November 2001
- Frans Hals Museum theft, 25 March 2002
- Edenhurst Gallery theft, 28 July 2002
- Russborough House art theft #4, September 2002
- Van Gogh Museum theft, 8 December 2002
- 2003 Iraq War
- Kunsthistorisches Museum theft, 11 May 2003
- Drumlanrig Castle theft, 27 August 2003
- Momart fire, 24 May 2004
- Santo Spirito in Sassia Hospital theft, 31 July 2004
- Munch Museum theft, 22 August 2004
- Neumann Foundation theft, 27 October 2004
- Victoria and Albert Museum theft, 29 December 2004
- Westfries Museum theft, 9 January 2005
- Henry Moore Foundation theft, 15 December 2005
- Strindberg Museum theft, 15 February 2006
- Museu da Chácara do Céu, Rio de Janeiro theft, 24 February 2006
- São Paulo Museum of Art theft, 20 December 2007
- Foundation E.G. Bührle theft, 10 February 2008
- Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo theft, 12 June 2008
- Hélio Oiticica fire, 16 October 2009
- Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris theft, 10 May 2010
- Dulwich Park theft, 20 December 2011
- Kunsthal Art theft, 16 October 2012
- Clandon House fire, 29 April 2015
- National Museum of Brazil fire, 2 September 2018
Research and recovery efforts
In the U.S., the FBI maintains the , "a database of stolen art and cultural property. Stolen objects are submitted for entry to the NSAF by law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad."
A number of search and recovery efforts were created in response to major loss events, notably:
- Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program, 1943–1946
- Bureau of Revindication and Damages, operated from 1945 to 1951
- Bureau of the Government Representative for Polish Cultural Heritage Abroad, 1991-
List of notable lost artworks
Pre-16th century
| Status | Creation date | Known as | Creator | Commission/provenance note | Loss event | Year lost | Surviving copies and documentation | |
| Destroyed | 475-25 BCE | Sack of Troy | Polygnotus | In the Lesche of Knidos at Delphi | Pausanias in Description of Greece, Chapter X | |||
| Destroyed | 475-25 BCE | Odysseus in the Underworld | Polygnotus | In the Lesche of Knidos at Delphi | Pausanias in Description of Greece, Chapter X | |||
| Destroyed | 450-40 BCE | Lemnian Athena, a bronze | Phidias | Housed in the Parthenon | ||||
| Missing | 447- BCE | Athena Parthenos | Phidias | Originally housed in the Parthenon | 900-99 | |||
| Destroyed | 435 BCE | Statue of Zeus at Olympia | Phidias | Probably Lauseion fire | 425-472 | |||
| Presumed destroyed | 450-400 BCE | Female Centaur Nursing a Pair of Twins | Zeuxis | Part of the loot of the Roman General Sulla from the First Mithridatic War | Shipwreck off Malea | 86 BCE | ||
| Destroyed | 399-00 BCE | Aphrodite of Knidos, a marble sculpture | Praxiteles | |||||
| Destroyed | 399-00 BCE | Seated Hercules, a colossal bronze | Lysippus | For the acropolis of Tarentum in southern Italy, was taken to Rome by Fabius Maximus, 209 BCE, and installed on the Capitoline Hill; later taken to Constantinople to decorate the Hippodrome | Fourth Crusade, melted down by invaders | 1204 | - | |
| Missing | 399-00 BCE | Eros Stringing the Bow bronze | Lysippus | Various copies exist | - | |||
| Missing | 399-00 BCE | Agias bronze | Lysippus | Marble copy found and preserved in Delphi | - | |||
| Missing | 340-30 BCE | Oil Pourer bronze | Lysippus, circle of | Roman marble copies | - | |||
| Missing | 340-30 BCE | Hercules bronze | Lysippus | Marble copy by Glykon | - | |||
| Missing | 330 BCE | Apoxyomenos bronze | Lysippus | Roman general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa installed Lysippos's masterpiece in the Baths of Agrippa that he erected in Rome, around 20 BCE | Description in Pliny the Elder's Natural History, multiple marble copies | - | ||
| Missing | 356-23 BCE | Alexander the Great bronzes | Lysippus | - | ||||
| Destroyed | 292-80 BCE | Colossus of Rhodes | Chares of Lindos | Rhodes earthquake | 226 BCE | - | ||
| Missing | 60-84 | Hodegetria | Saint Luke | 1261- | - | |||
| Destroyed | 193-526 | Regisole | Erected at Ravenna, moved to Pavia in the Middle Ages, it stood before the cathedral | Jacobin Club in Pavia vandalism | 1796 | - | ||
| Missing | 400-525 | Image of Edessa | Sack of Constantinople French Revolution | 1204 1789–99 | - | |||
| Destroyed | 425 | Portraits of western and eastern imperial family members mosaic | commissioned by Galla Placidia in the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista, Ravenna | 1747 | - | |||
| Destroyed | 425 | Portrait of the bishop of Ravenna mosaic | commissioned by Galla Placidia in the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista, Ravenna | 1747 | - | |||
| Destroyed | 500-99 | Buddhas of Bamyan | Taliban iconoclasm | 2001 | - | |||
| Presumed Destroyed | 500-99 | Camuliana | Byzantine Iconoclasm | 727-842 | - | |||
| Destroyed | 600 | Icon of Christ Chalkites | Iconoclasm of Leo III | 726-30 | - | |||
| Destroyed | 1070–79 | Bayeux Tapestry, final portion | Deliberately removed at some point | - | ||||
| Destroyed | 1277–85 | The facade mosaics and the fresco cycles, with stories from the New and Old Testament | Cavallini, Pietro | In the Basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome | Fire | 1823 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1305–13 | Navicella mosaic | Giotto | Outside Old Saint Peter's Basilica | Moved and extensively reworked in the 17th century | 1600–1675 | - | |
| Missing | 1308 | Coronation of the Virgin panel of the Maestà altarpiece | Duccio | Dismantled | 1711 | - | ||
| Missing | 1308 | Virgin of the Assumption panel of the Maestà altarpiece | Duccio | Dismantled | 1711 | - | ||
| Missing | 1308 | Ascension of Christ panel of the Maestà altarpiece | Duccio | Dismantled | 1711 | - | ||
| Missing | 1308 | Christ in Majesty panel of the Maestà altarpiece | Duccio | Dismantled | 1711 | - | ||
| Missing | 1328–37 | Commune of Florence allegorical fresco | Giotto | painted for the Palazzo del Podestà, now the Bargello, Florence | Described by Giorgio Vasari as a seated judge with sceptre, flanked by figures of Fortitude, Prudence, Justice and Temperance | - | ||
| Missing | 1314–28 | Stories of the Apostles frescoes | Giotto | For the Giugni Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence | - | |||
| Missing | 1297–1337 | Painting of the Virgin | Giotto | Bequeathed by the poet Petrarch to Francesca da Carrara, lord of Padua, in 1370 | - | |||
| Destroyed | 1317–48 | Saint Margaret of Cortona bringing Suppolino back to Life fresco | Lorenzetti, Ambrogio | In the Church of Santa Margherita, Cortona | Destroyed | ~1650 | - | |
| Missing | 1327–44 | Laura | Martini, Simone | Portrait is the subject of Sonnets 77 and 78, Rime sparse by Petrarch | - | |||
| Destroyed | 1390–1425 | Virgin Enthroned with Saints and Angels | Monaco, Lorenzo | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | - | ||
| Missing | 1410 | Joshua terra cotta | Donatello | North tribune of the Duomo of Florence | Disappeared in the 18th century | 1700–1799 | - | |
| Missing | 1428 | Abundance in stone | Donatello | On a column placed first in the Baptistery of the Duomo, later in the Mercato Vecchio, Florence | Replaced in the 18th century, now lost | 1700–1799 | Copies in terra cotta from the workshop of Giovanni della Robbia exist | - |
| Destroyed | 1424 | Hunting scenes frescoes | Pisanello | Castle of Pavia | Destroyed by French soldiers | 1527 | - | |
| Destroyed | Frescoes of Saint Eustace, Saint George Sheathing his Sword | Pisanello | Chapel of the Pellegrini family, S. Anastasia, Verona | Internal damage to the church | by 1826 | - | ||
| Destroyed | 1427–28 | Frescoes | da Fabriano, Gentile Pisanello | In the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome | Destroyed during reconstruction | 1647 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1425–30 | Mosaic of Saint Peter Blessing | Paolo Uccello | On the façade of the Basilica of San Marco, Venice | Replaced with mosaics by Gaetano | 1617–18 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1432 | Illustrious Men fresco cycle | da Panicale, Masolino Uccello | For the Palace of Cardinal Orsini in Rome | A watercolor copy by Leonardo da Besozzo survives | - | ||
| Destroyed | 1425 | Sagra del Carmine monochrome fresco | Masaccio | For the cloister of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence | Destroyed | 1600 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1425–69 | Confirmation of the Rules of the Carmelites fresco | Lippi, Filippo | In the cloister of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence | Fire | 1771 | A fragment uncovered in 1860 survives in place | - |
| Missing | 1423 | Painted Crucifix | Fra Angelico | For the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence | - | |||
| Destroyed | 1456 | Last Judgment | Fra Angelico, school of | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | - | ||
| Destroyed | 1440–57 | Flagellation fresco | del Castagno, Andrea | In the cloister of the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence | Destroyed in the 17th century | 1600–1699 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1450–52 | Life of the Virgin frescoes | Veneziano, Domenico del Castagno, Andrea | In the church of Sant' Egidio, Florence | Destroyed | 1594 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1449–56 | Life of Santa Rosa fresco cycle | Gozzoli, Benozzo | For the church of Santa Rosa, Viterbo | 1632 renovations to the church | 1632 | Autograph and other drawings and a contemporary description survive | - |
| Destroyed | 1450–76 | Scenes from the life of Saint Nicholas altarpiece | da Messina, Antonello | For the Confraternity of San Nicolò della Montagna in Messina, seen by Cavalcaselle in 1871 | Destroyed in the Messina earthquake | 1908 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1496 | Virgin and Child in Glory with Saints John the Evangelist, Francis, Jerome and John the Baptist | Ghirlandaio, Domenico | In the Church of San Francesco in San Casciano, Val di Pesa until 1810. | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1470–92 | Several original paintings on "pagan" subjects | Botticelli | Bonfire of the Vanities | - | |||
| Destroyed | 1478 | Piero di Cosimo de' Medici | Botticelli | Formerly Museo Civico Gaetano Filangieri, Naples | Destroyed in World War II | 1939–45 | Photographs survive | - |
| Destroyed | 1478- | Frescoes depicting the criminal conspirators of the Pazzi Conspiracy against the Medici | Botticelli | Painted either in the Bargello or the Dogana in Florence | Removed at the instigation of Pope Alexander VI after the fall of the Medici | 1494 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1487–90 | Frescoes on mythological themes, including the Forge of Vulcan | Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Filippino Lippi and Perugino | For Lorenzo de' Medici in the great hall and external loggia of his villa at Spedaletto, near Volterra | Damaged by damp and finally destroyed by fire in the early 19th century | 1800–1850 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1456–1515 | Fresco of the Triumph of Trajan | Vincenzo Foppa | Done for the Medici bank in the Via de' Bossi, Milan | The Medici bank palazzo demolished | 1863 | A fragment survives in the Wallace Collection, London | - |
| Destroyed | 1485 | Altarpiece for the church of Santa Maria dei Battuti in Belluno | Alvise Vivarini | Destroyed by fire in Berlin during World War II | 1939–45 | - | ||
| Destroyed | 1488 | Frescoes, including a Baptism of Christ for the Belvedere Chapel of the Vatican | Andrea Mantegna | Destroyed under Pope Pius VI to permit construction of the Pio-Clementino Museum | 1780 | - | ||
| Destroyed | 1450–57 | Frescoes of the Lives of Saint James and Saint Christopher | Andrea Mantegna | for the Ovetari Chapel of the Church of the Eremitani, Padua | Destroyed in the Allied bombing of Padua, March 11 | 1944 | Frescoes of the Assumption and Body of Saint Christopher detached in 1880 survive, as do photographs | - |
| Destroyed | 1457–60 | Lamentation of the People over the Dead Gattamelata | Andrea Mantegna | A fresco in the Palazzo Gattamelata, Padua | Fire on November 5 | 1760 | A related drawing is in The Wallace Collection, London | - |
| Destroyed | 1470–1515 | Saint Catherine of Siena Altarpiece | Giovanni Bellini | In the Chapel of the Rosary of the Church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice | Fire | 1867 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1494 | The Supper at Emmaus | Giovanni Bellini | Painted for Giorgio Cornaro of Venice | Fire in Vienna in the 18th century | 1700–1799 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1478–80 | Ascension with Christ in Glory fresco | Melozzo da Forlì | For the choir of the Church of the Santi Apostoli, Rome | Renovation to enlarge the choir | 1711 | Fragments survive in the Vatican and Quirinal | - |
| Destroyed | 1483 | Destruction of Troy fresco | Lorenzo Costa | For the loggia of the Bentivoglio Palace, Bologna | Destroyed with the palace by a mob | 1507 | Fragment survives in the Pinacoteca Nazionale | - |
| Destroyed | 1472–74 | The Court of Pan | Luca Signorelli | Painted c. 1490 at the request of Lorenzo de' Medici | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1474 | Madonna and Saints fresco | Luca Signorelli | In the Tower of Città di Castello | Earthquake | 1789 | - | |
| Presumed destroyed | 1508-09 | The Calumny of Apelles fresco | Luca Signorelli | Audience chamber of the Palazzo del Magnifico | Dispersion, missing by 1840 | 1512–1840 | - | |
| Presumed destroyed | 1508-09 | The Feast of Pan fresco | Luca Signorelli | Audience chamber of the Palazzo del Magnifico | Dispersion, missing by 1840 | 1512–1840 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1466–80 | Adoration of the Magi fresco | Perugino | For the convent of S. Giusto alle Mura | Preparing the city for the Siege of Florence | 1529 | - | |
| Missing | 1420–30 | Woman Bathing | Van Eyck | Lost | Depicted in the 17th-century gallery of Cornelis van der Geest painted by Willem van Haecht | - | ||
| Missing | 1430–32 | The Just Judges Ghent Altarpiece panel | Van Eyck | Stolen | 1934 | - | ||
| Destroyed | 1441 | Madonna and Child with a Donor triptych | Van Eyck | painted for Nicholas van Maelbeke, provost of St. Martin's Cathedral, Ypres | Removed from the cathedral and lost during the French occupation of The Netherlands, 1792–1815 | 1792–1815 | A 1629 copy was acquired by the Bruges museum in 2007 | - |
| Destroyed | 1444 | Crucifixion | Petrus Christus | Formerly Dessau Museum | Destroyed by bombing in World War II | 1939–45 | - | |
| Destroyed | 1439- | The Justice of Trajan and the Justice of Herkenbald | Rogier van der Weyden | Painted for the 'Gulden Camere' of the Brussels Town Hall | Bombardment of Brussels | 1695 | Tapestries executed c. 1450 copying the artist's original designs survive | - |
| Destroyed | 1509–28 | Descent from the Cross altarpiece | Jan Gossaert | Church of Middelburg | Lightning strike, fire | 1568 | - | |
| Presumed Destroyed | 1475 | Great History of Troy tapestries | Painted Chamber of the Palace of Westminster | Removed 1820 and sold for ten pounds sterling to a London merchant | 1820 | An 18th-century watercolor of one tapestry by John Carter is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum | - | |
| Destroyed | 1456 | Frescoes | Piero della Francesca | Vatican Palace, destroyed by Raphael before painting the Stanze | - | |||
| Destroyed | 1482- | Leonardo's horse terracotta model | Leonardo da Vinci | French invasion of Milan | 1499 | - | ||
| Missing | 1490 | Eve | Tullio Lombardo | Carved for the tomb of Doge Andrea Vendramin in the church of Santa Maria dei Servi, Venice. Together with its companion statue Adam, now in the Metropolitan Museum | Disappeared from public view around 1819 when the Vendramin monument was moved to the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice | 1819 | - |
16th century
17th century
18th century
19th century
20th century
21st century
List of notable finds
List of notable disputed finds
| Year found | Year lost | Creation date | Known as | Creator | Loss event |
| 2014 | 1700 | 1604-05 | Judith Beheading Holofernes | Caravaggio | Unknown |