# What Are Some Artifacts, Artworks, Treasures, etc. That Are Probably Somewhere, But No One Knows Where? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 8, 2023, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825 "2023-11-08T14:56:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/21 "2023-11-08T20:45:28Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The Elagabalus stone Huh. For decades I’ve had the idea that this was the same stone that is worshipped in Mecca today. Is it really not the same one? Are we certain? I picked up that idea so very long ago that I have no idea where I read it. I am sure it was presented to me as a fact though. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/22 "2023-11-08T20:48:17Z")
I’ve never heard that. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/23 "2023-11-08T20:49:47Z")
According to Unca Cecil, there are still a few cases of Canadian Club whiskey from a 1970s promotion out there somewhere, waiting to be found. And if you don’t consider a free case of hooch to be treasure, I shall have to ask you to step outside! ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/24 "2023-11-08T21:13:35Z")
The theft from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum factors into the plot of Daniel Silva’s latest book, _The Collector_, which I just finished. Vermeer’s _The Concert_ was the stolen piece the book focused on, but they did also talk about the Rembrandt. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/25 "2023-11-09T01:36:29Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > According to Unca Cecil, there are still a few cases of Canadian Club whiskey from a 1970s promotion out there somewhere, waiting to be found. And if you don’t consider a free case of hooch to be treasure, I shall have to ask you to step outside! Hey, I don’t drink, but I’d call that an important historical artifact. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/26 "2023-11-09T02:21:05Z")
Thanks for the back-up, m’dear, the check is in the mail. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/27 "2023-11-09T03:09:03Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Huh. For decades I’ve had the idea that this was the same stone that is worshipped in Mecca today. Is it really not the same one? Are we certain? > > I picked up that idea so very long ago that I have no idea where I read it. I am sure it was presented to me as a fact though. No reason to think so. Popular Astronomy published a history of the Black Stone of the Kaaba many years ago, and doesn’t mention any connection. In addition, the Black Stone doesn’t appear to be the same conical shape. Finally, I read an article in a Meteorite journal back in the 1970s in which a Muslim meteorist examined the Black Stone while on the _hajj_, and he said that the Black Stone was not meteoric. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/28 "2023-11-09T03:26:07Z")
> [@solost](#): > > I don’t remember where, but I believe I read that supposedly the staff of Moses that turned into a serpent and the 10 Commandment tablets were stored inside the Ark. > [@solost](#): > > Ok, I got it straight from the OG source. For some reason I thought that was apocryphal. By OG source, I choose to assume you meant, well, The Straight Dope? 😜 > **[What happened to the Ark of the Covenant?](https://www.straightdope.com/21342544/what-happened-to-the-ark-of-the-covenant)** > > A STAFF REPORT FROM THE STRAIGHT DOPE SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD Which lead to a very, very long series of follow ups by CKDexterHaven about manna. I remember this, because it was literally one of the first threads HERE [I commented](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-part-is-cecils-reply-and-which-part-is-c-k-dexter-havens/854878) on as I remembered details from the last column on the subject that had been lost to the changes of the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/29 "2023-11-09T03:31:17Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > a Muslim meteorist Meteoriticist. The discipline is [meteoritics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoritics). ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/30 "2023-11-09T03:49:13Z")
The thread title reminds me of one of the purported investment opportunities a grifter promoted at the time of the 1720 South Sea Bubble, "an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is.” I’m pretty sure there are treasures buried somewhere on my acreage, but so far all I’ve dug up are century-old bricks. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/31 "2023-11-09T04:01:32Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > I’ll start. [The Amber Room](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-amber-room-160940121/), a glorious Russian artifact that may have been dismantled and put into hiding at some point before or during WWII, but has since been lost to history. It could still very well be in some vault somewhere. Burnt to ashes in allied bombing. Some of the ceramics survived the flames. Maybe some bits and pieces were taken off and survived. > [@dolphinboy](#): > > The original Holy Grail? Assuming it ever really existed. Yeah, Jesus had a final Passover feast, and drank from a cup. Maybe someone saved it, but there is no evidence, and no one really cared until the early medieval period. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > This sword. Yep. Could be destroyed or in someones attic. > [@Nyvaak](#): > > In 1941, with war looming, the bones of at least 40 individuals were loaded into two wooden footlockers to be transported (via various stages) to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. They never made it there, and their location has been an enduring mystery. (They _might_ be under a parking lot in an Qinhuangdao.) Or sunk. In a sealed room under the Forts near Ft MacArthur were a lot of unclaimed footlockers from MIAS and KAIs. ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/32 "2023-11-09T08:44:50Z")
The score of Mozart’s only cello concerto may still exist somewhere. On a related note, there’s the rather ridiculous story of the only copy of Mendelssohn’s cello concerto falling off the coach that was carrying it to its dedicatee. That one is probably lost forever. Just imagine if it was as beautiful as his violin concerto… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/33 "2023-11-09T12:36:47Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Meteoriticist. The discipline is [meteoritics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoritics). Sorry – I meant to type that but it didn’t register. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/34 "2023-11-09T15:17:33Z")
The original H.R. Giger work that was used for the album cover of Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Brain Salad Surgery was stolen from an exhibit and never recovered. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/35 "2023-11-09T15:29:40Z")
Marc Blitzstein lost the manuscript to his “Airborne Symphony” and had to rewrite the entire piece from memory. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/36 "2023-11-09T15:59:19Z")
Sometimes they turn up in the most unexpected places. > **[Stuart Little leads art historian to long-lost Hungarian masterpiece](https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/27/stuart-little-art-historian-long-lost-hungarian-masterpiece)** > > Researcher spots Sleeping Lady with Black Vase by Robert Bereny being used as a prop in Hollywood children’s movie ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/37 "2023-11-09T16:10:58Z")
In 1922 Hemingway lost a suitcase with everything he had written in Paris, including the carbon copies. I’ve always hoped it would turn up some day in a train station lost and found. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/38 "2023-11-09T16:11:23Z")
Yes, but as described on [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Airborne_Symphony), the original manuscript was later recovered, so it doesn’t count for the purposes of this thread. Blitzstein preferred his second version, so this is what is now known as the Airborne Symphony. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/39 "2023-11-09T18:13:20Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > The original H.R. Giger work that was used for the album cover of Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Brain Salad Surgery was stolen from an exhibit and never recovered. That reminds me of this: > **[‘Led Zeppelin IV’ Cover Photo Mystery Man Finally Identified 52 Years After...](https://deadline.com/2023/11/led-zeppelin-iv-cover-photo-1235596856/)** > > His image is familiar to millions, iconic to a generation of rock fans and a 52-year mystery finally solved: The old, bearded, hunched-over man toting a big bundle of sticks as seen on the cover of… ---
**Author:** ![Apodder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apodder/32/17727_2.png) [@Apodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apodder)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825/40 "2023-11-09T20:05:55Z")
Assuming ANY of that ever really existed… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-artifacts-artworks-treasures-etc-that-are-probably-somewhere-but-no-one-knows-where/992825.md?page=3)