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.
In some cases, such as the Portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger (lost in a fire in 1698) many copies had been made, so we have a good idea of the work's appearance. Almost all portable stone sculptures from classical antiquity are later copies of pieces famous at the time, mostly from the Roman period.
The US FBI maintains a list of "Top Ten Art Crimes";[1] a 2006 book by Simon Houpt[2] and a 2018 book by Noah Charney[3] 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
- Jingkang Incident (Sack of Kaifeng), 10 January 1126-
- Fourth Crusade, 1202–1204
- Bonfires of the vanities, 1492–1497
- Bonfire of the vanities, Florence, 1492
- Bonfire of the vanities, Florence, 7 February 1497
- Palazzo Bentivoglio destruction, 1507
- Iconoclastic Fury, 1522–1599
- Doge's Palace fire, 1576
- Russo-Swedish Deluge 1648-1667
- Bombardment of Brussels, 13–15 August 1695
- Brussels Town Hall fire, 13–15 August 1695
- Palace of Whitehall fire, 4 January 1698
- André-Charles Boulle workshop fire, 30 August 1720
- 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
- Ribeira Palace destruction
- Vrouw Maria sinking, 9 October 1771
- French Revolution, 1789–1799
- 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
- Old Summer Palace destruction, 18–21 October 1861
- Museum Boymans fire, 1864
- Paris Commune, 18 March-28 May 1871
- Holker Hall fire, 1871[4]
- Great Boston Fire of 1872
- Bath House fire, 31 January 1873
- Pantechnicon warehouse fire, London, 13–14 February 1874
- Benin City sacking, 9 February 1897-
- San Francisco Earthquake, April 18, 1906
- 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
- Treasures for Tractors, 1920s
- Thames flood (Tate Gallery 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, 1936–1939
- World War II, 1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945[5][6]
- Gosford House fire, 1940
- Castle Howard fire, 9 November 1940
- The Blitz, 7 September 1940 – 21 May 1941
- Bombardment of Manila, December 1941
- Bombing of Bremen, 1942
- Palazzo Archinto (Milan) bombing, 1943
- Battle of Monte Cassino, 17 January – 18 May 1944
- Ovetari Chapel bombing, 11 March 1944
- Destruction of Warsaw, 1944–45
- Royal Castle, Warsaw explosion
- Bombing of Dresden, February 1945
- Battle of Manila, 3 February – 3 March 1945
- Schloss Immendorf fire, May 1945
- Friedrichshain flak tower fire, May 1945[7]
- Ashiya District air raids, 5–6 August 1945
- Quedlinburg medieval art theft, 19 April – June 1945
- Soviet looting, 1939–1945
- 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 (MoMA) 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[8]
- 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 (Frankfurt art theft), 28 July 1994
- Stéphane Breitwieser: 172 museum thefts, 1995–2001
- Oklahoma City bombing (Murrah Building collapse), 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
- Dresden Green Vault burglary 2019
- 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Burning of the Museum of Local History in the town of Ivankiv, Kyiv region, February 2022
- Destruction of National Literary and Memorial Museum of G. S. Skovoroda
Research and recovery efforts
The Art Loss Register is a commercial computerized international database which captures information about lost and stolen art, antiques and collectables. It is operated by a commercial company based in London.
In the U.S., the FBI maintains the | National Stolen Art File, "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."[9]
A number of search and recovery efforts were created in response to major loss events, notably:
List of notable lost artworks
- Alexander III Commemorative egg by Fabergé Est. $20–30,000,000
- Royal Danish egg (Danish Jubilee egg) by Fabergé Est. $20–30,000,000
- Vase with Lychnis by Van Gogh
- White Duck by Jean-Baptiste Oudry Est. (2006) US$8,800,000[2]
Pre-16th century
Status | Creation date(s) (est.) | Known as | Creator | Commission/provenance note | Loss event | Year lost (est.) | Surviving copies and documentation | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Destroyed | -475-425 BCE | Sack of Troy | Polygnotus | In the Lesche of Knidos at Delphi | Pausanias in Description of Greece, Chapter X |
| ||
Destroyed | -00475-425 BCE | Odysseus in the Underworld | Polygnotus | In the Lesche of Knidos at Delphi | Pausanias in Description of Greece, Chapter X | |||
Destroyed | -00450-440 BCE | Lemnian Athena, a bronze | Phidias | Housed in the Parthenon | ||||
Missing | -00447- BCE | Athena Parthenos | Phidias | Originally housed in the Parthenon | 900-99 | |||
Destroyed | -00435 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 (see Antikythera wreck) | 86 BCE | ||
Destroyed | -0399-300 BCE | Aphrodite of Knidos, a marble sculpture | Praxiteles | |||||
Destroyed | -0399-400 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 | -0399-300 BCE | Eros Stringing the Bow bronze | Lysippus | Various copies exist | ||||
Missing | -0399-300 BCE | Agias bronze | Lysippus | Marble copy found and preserved in Delphi | ||||
Missing | -0340-330 BCE | Oil Pourer bronze | Lysippus, circle of | Roman marble copies | ||||
Missing | -0340-330 BCE | Hercules bronze | Lysippus | Marble copy by Glykon | ||||
Missing | -0330 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 | -0356-323 BCE | Alexander the Great bronzes | Lysippus | |||||
Destroyed | -292-280 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 (destroyed as a symbol of monarchy) | 1796 | |||
Missing | 400-525 | Image of Edessa (Mandylion) | 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 | 500-599 | Buddhas of Bamyan | Taliban iconoclasm | 2001 | ||||
Presumed Destroyed | 500-599 | Camuliana | Byzantine Iconoclasm | 727-842 | ||||
Destroyed | 600 | Icon of Christ Chalkites | Iconoclasm of Leo III | 726-30 | ||||
Destroyed | 1070–1079 | Bayeux Tapestry, final portion | Deliberately removed at some point | |||||
Destroyed | 1277–1285 | 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[11] | Fire | 1823 | ||
Destroyed | 1305–1313 | 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 | 1328–1337 | 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 | 1314–1328 | 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 | 1317–1348 | Saint Margaret of Cortona bringing Suppolino back to Life fresco | Lorenzetti, Ambrogio | In the Church of Santa Margherita, Cortona | Destroyed | ~1650 | ||
Missing | 1327–1344 | Laura (Laura de Noves) | Martini, Simone | Portrait is the subject of Sonnets 77 and 78, Rime sparse (1372) by Petrarch | ||||
Destroyed | 1390–1425 | Virgin Enthroned with Saints and Angels (1402) | 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 (Dovizia) 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[12] | 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[13] | 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 | 1425–1430 | 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 | 1425–1469 | Confirmation of the Rules of the Carmelites fresco | Lippi, Filippo | In the cloister of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence | Fire[14] | 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 | 1440–1457 | Flagellation fresco | del Castagno, Andrea | In the cloister of the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence | Destroyed in the 17th century | 1600–1699 | ||
Destroyed | 1450–1452 | Life of the Virgin frescoes | Veneziano, Domenico del Castagno, Andrea | In the church of Sant' Egidio (Santa Maria Nuova), Florence | Destroyed | 1594 | ||
Destroyed | 1449–1456 | Life of Santa Rosa fresco cycle | Gozzoli, Benozzo | For the church of Santa Rosa, Viterbo | 1632 renovations to the church[15] | 1632 | Autograph and other drawings and a contemporary description survive | |
Destroyed | 1450–1476 | 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[16] | 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 | 1470–1492 | 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 Medicis | 1494 | ||
Destroyed | 1487–1490 | 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[17] | 1800–1850 | ||
Destroyed | 1456–1515 | Fresco of the Triumph of Trajan | Vincenzo Foppa | Done for the Medici bank in the Via de' Bossi, Milan[18] | 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 | 1450–1457 | 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 | 1457–1460 | 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 (Sacra Conversazione) | 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 | 1478–1480 | 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 | 1478–1480 | Vault of the Feo Chapel, fresco | Melozzo da Forlì | For the San Biagio Church in Forlì | Bombing of World War II | 1945 | graphical notes by Girolamo Reggiani (1831) Black and White photo (1944) and color reconstruction drawing (2020) by Olivier Maceratesi | |
Destroyed | 1483 | Destruction of Troy fresco | Lorenzo Costa | For the loggia of the Bentivoglio Palace, Bologna | Destroyed with the palace by a mob[19] | 1507 | Fragment survives in the Pinacoteca Nazionale | |
Destroyed | 1472–1474 | The Court of Pan (The School of Pan) | Luca Signorelli | Painted c. 1490 at the request of Lorenzo de' Medici[20] | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | black and white photo and reconstruction drawing (2021) by Olivier Maceratesi | |
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 | reconstruction drawing (2021) by Olivier Maceratesi | |
Destroyed | 1466–1480 | Adoration of the Magi fresco | Perugino | For the convent of S. Giusto alle Mura[21] | Preparing the city for the Siege of Florence | 1529 | ||
Missing | 1420–1430 | Woman Bathing | Van Eyck | Lost | Depicted in the 17th-century gallery of Cornelis van der Geest painted by Willem van Haecht | |||
Missing | 1430–1432 | The Just Judges Ghent Altarpiece panel | Van Eyck | Stolen | 1934 | |||
Destroyed | 1441 | Madonna and Child with a Donor (van Eyck) 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 (attributed) | 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' (Golden Chamber) of the Brussels Town Hall | Bombardment of Brussels | 1695 | Tapestries executed c. 1450 copying the artist's original designs survive[22] | |
Destroyed | 1509–1528 | 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 (or covered) 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
Status | Creation date(s) (est.) | Known as | Creator | Commission/provenance note | Loss event | Year lost (est.) | Surviving copies and documentation | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Missing | 1511-1520 | The Trial of Saint Stephen | Vittore Carpaccio | One of a series of five canvases for the Scuola di San Stefano, Venice | Untraced after 1806 | 1806 | A drawing for the modello survives in the Uffizi | |
Destroyed | Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints Faustinus and Jovita, patron saints of Brescia (the Averoldi Altarpiece) | Vittore Carpaccio | Formerly sacristy of S. Giovanni Evangelista, Brescia | Sold to the National Gallery London, lost in a shipwreck crossing the English Channel | ||||
Destroyed | The Birth of Paris (Finding of the Infant Paris?) | Giorgione | In the collections of Taddeo Contarini, Venice and the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, Brussels | Known through a copy by David Teniers the Younger, now in the Musées Royaux de Beaux-Arts, Brussels. Engraved by Theodoor van Kessel, 1660. A fragment of two shepherds survives. | ||||
Destroyed | c. 1507-08 | Assumption of the Virgin | Fra Bartolomeo | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | |||
Missing | before 1500 | Medusa (unfinished) | Leonardo da Vinci | In the collection of Cosimo I of Tuscany, 1553 | Lost since the end of the 16th century | 1550–1599 | ||
Missing | 1508 | Leda and the Swan | Leonardo da Vinci | Disappeared from the French royal palace of Fontainebleau after 1623 | After 1623 | A copy by Cesare da Sesto is at Wilton House,Salisbury | ||
Missing | The Battle of Anghiari | Leonardo da Vinci | Palazzo Vecchio | |||||
Destroyed | Cartoon of the battle of Cascina, Palazzo Vecchio | Michelangelo | Putatively destroyed by Bandinelli | |||||
Missing | circa 1530 | A painting of Leda and the Swan | Michelangelo | Given by the artist to his friend Antonio Mini who took it to France | Disappeared in France | A print engraved by Cornelis Vos, 1537, records the design | ||
Destroyed | A marble Cupid | Michelangelo | Later owned by Isabella d'Este and Charles I of England | Fire at Whitehall Palace, London | 1698 | |||
Presumed Destroyed | Portrait of a Courtesan | Caravaggio | Formerly in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, Berlin | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | |||
Missing | c. 1492–1494 | A marble Hercules | Michelangelo | Michelangelo's first free-standing statue; installed in the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1506, sent to France in the 16th century | Disappeared from the French royal palace of Fontainebleau in the 18th century | 1700–1799 | ||
Missing | A bronze statue of David resting his foot on the severed head of Goliath | Michelangelo | Commissioned in 1502 and sent to France in 1508 | Disappeared from the Chateau de Villeroy during the French Revolution | 1794–95 | |||
Destroyed | A bronze statue of pope Julius II in the act of blessing | Michelangelo | On San Petronio basilica's facade in Bologna | Destroyed by the people of Bologna | 1511 | |||
Destroyed | Altarpiece of the Madonna and Child with St. Mary Magdalen and St. Lucy (Madonna of Albinea) | Antonio da Correggio | ||||||
Destroyed | Fresco of The Coronation of the Virgin for the church of San Giovanni Evangelista, Parma | Correggio | Destroyed | 1587 | Fragments in National Gallery, London, other museums | |||
Destroyed | Fresco of Saint Mary Magdalen in the Desert | Correggio | Painted for Veronica Gambara's Palazzo della Delizie, in the town of Correggio | Destruction of Palazzo della Delizie | c. 1555 | Described in a letter dated Sept. 3, 1528 from Veronica Gambara to Isabella d’Este[23] | ||
Missing | 1513–14 | Portrait of a Young Man (Raphael) | Raphael | Nazi plunder | 1939 | |||
Destroyed | Baronci altarpiece (the Crowning of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino) | Raphael | Raphael's first recorded commission, it was made for Andrea Baronci's chapel in the church of Sant'Agostino in Citta di Castello, near Urbino | Earthquake | 1700–1799 | At least four fragments survive (Louvre, Capodimonte) | ||
Missing | Saint Catherine of Alexandria | Raphael | Formerly owned by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel | Presumed lost | Depicted in an engraving by Wenceslas Hollar | |||
Missing | 1520 | Portrait of Albrecht Dürer in Black Hat and Cloak | Tommaso Vincidor | Painted from life in Antwerp | Presumed lost | Depicted in the 17th-century gallery of Cornelis van der Geest painted by Willem van Haecht | ||
Missing | 1537–1539 | Frescoes for the Massimi Chapel at Santa Trinità dei Monti, Rome, representing Christ at the Pool of Bethesda, Christ and the Centurion, the Transfiguration, the Expulsion from the Temple and (possibly) the Feeding of the Five Thousand. | Pierino del Vaga | Detached during Napoleonic times and lost by 1840 | Before 1840 | A companion fresco, The Raising of Lazarus, now transferred to canvas, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum | ||
Missing | The Wedding of Neptune and Amphitrite silver bowl | Cellini | Taken from the Chapter of the Basilica of Santa Barbara, Modena, by the French | 1796 | ||||
Destroyed | Ascension of Mary altarpiece (The 'Heller altar') | Dürer | The central panel added to the collection of Elector Maximilian of Bavaria | Fire | 1729 | A 1615 copy of the entire altarpiece by Jobst Harrich of Nuremberg survives | ||
Destroyed | c. 1529 | Portrait of an Architect (Self-Portrait?) | Wolf Huber | Fire at the Musée de Beaux Arts, Strasbourg, August 13, 1947 (one of 30 paintings destroyed) | 1947 | |||
Destroyed | Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz | Cranach the Elder | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | ||||
Destroyed | Virgin and Child with Four Female Saints | Cranach the Elder | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | ||||
Destroyed | Madonna and Child with Infant Saint John | Cranach the Elder | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | ||||
Destroyed | Duke Henry of Saxony | Cranach the Elder | Bombing of Dresden, February 1945 | 1945 | ||||
Missing | Market Day | Pieter Brueghel the Elder | Depicted in the 17th-century gallery of Cornelis van der Geest painted by Willem van Haecht | |||||
Destroyed | The Farmers Brawl | Pieter Brueghel the Elder | Bombing of Dresden, February | 1945 | Engraved by Lucas Vosterman, c. 1620 | |||
Destroyed | Whitehall Mural of Henry VIII and family in Whitehall Palace, London | Hans Holbein the Younger | Fire | 1698 | ||||
Destroyed | Sir Thomas More and Family | Holbein | Fire at Kremsier Castle, the Moravian residence of Carl von Liechtenstein, archbishop of Olmutz[24] | 1752 | ||||
Missing | The Goldsmith Hans von Zurich | Holbein | Owned successively by Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel and Everhard Jabach and heirs | Presumed lost | Copied by Lucas Vosterman and engraved by Wenceslas Hollar | |||
Missing | 1543 | Portrait of Johann von Schwarzwaldt | Holbein | Poland | Looted in World War II | 1939–45 | Photograph survives | |
Destroyed | Battle of Spoleto | Titian | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Battle of Cadore | Titian | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Doge Gritti Praying to the Virgin | Titian | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Coronation of Frederick Barbarossa | Tintoretto | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Excommunication of Barbarossa | Tintoretto | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Last Judgment | Tintoretto | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Homage of Frederick Barbarossa | Paolo Veronese | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Works | Gentile da Fabriano | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Works | Pisanello | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Pope Alexander III in the Church of St. Marks | Carpaccio | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Meeting of the Pope and the Doge at Ancona | Carpaccio | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Otho Promising to Mediate Between Venice and Barbarossa | Alvise Vivarini | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Paradise | Guariento | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Battle of Salvore | Gentile Bellini | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Presentation of the White Candle to the Pope | Gentile Bellini | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Destroyed | Presentation of the Eight Standards and Trumpets to the Doge | Giovanni Bellini | Doge's Palace fire | 1577 | ||||
Missing | Portrait of Isabella d'Este in Red | Titian | A copy by Rubens is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna | |||||
Destroyed | Death of St Peter Martyr for the Chapel of the Rosary, Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice | Titian | Fire | 1867 | Copies and engravings survive | |||
Destroyed | Double Portrait of Emperor Charles V and his wife Isabella of Portugal | Titian | Royal Alcázar of Madrid fire | 1734 | A copy by Rubens survives | |||
Destroyed | 1561 | Penitent Magdalene | Titian | Painted for Philip II of Spain | Fire at Bath House, London, January 21 | 1873 | ||
Destroyed | Ixion and Tantalus | Titian | Royal Alcázar of Madrid fire | 1734 | ||||
Destroyed | Paintings of The Twelve Caesars | Titian | Royal Alcázar of Madrid fire | 1734 | ||||
Missing | Venus in Front of her Mirror | Titian | Lost from the Spanish royal collection in the 19th century | 1800–1899 | A copy by Rubens survives | |||
Missing | 1551 | Frescoes for the first floor loggia of the Villa Soranzo at Treville (near Castelfranco Veneto) | Veronese and by Giambattista Zelotti | Designed by Michele Sanmicheli | Fresco fragments were removed from the villa and dispersed when it was destroyed between 1817 and 1819 | 1819 | ||
Destroyed | 1578 | The Jewel of Vicenza | Attributed to Andrea Palladio or Giorgio Capobianco | Created as an ex-voto and financed by donations from the city of Vicenza | Destroyed by the Napoleonic army when they tried to melt it down for silver | 1797 | A silver reconstruction was made in 2012–2013 | |
Destroyed | c. 1580 | Apollo and Juno | Veronese | Painted for the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, Venice | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | ||
Destroyed | c. 1580 | Saturn Helps Religion to Overcome Heresy | Veronese | Painted for the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, Venice | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | ||
Destroyed | Fresco of God the Father and the Four Evangelists | Pontormo | In the Capponi Chapel, Church of Santa Felicita, Florence | Remodeling in the 18th century | 1700–1799 | |||
Destroyed | Unfinished fresco of the Last Judgment at the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence | Pontormo | Renovations in the 18th century | 1700–1799 | ||||
Destroyed | 1597-1599 | Portrait of a Courtesan, aka Fillide Melandroni | Caravaggio | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | |||
Missing | 1572- | Portrait of Bianca Cappello (the Serendipity painting) | Vasari or Allori |
Formerly at the Vitelli palace, it was purchased by Horace Mann and sent as a gift to Horace Walpole. After the death of Walpole, the painting was sold as lot 92 in the 1842 Strawberry Hill auction (20th day); then possibly sold at the 1895 Sale of the Doetsch Collection at Christie's (item 157, as "Portrait of Laudomia de' Medici"). |
Missing after the 1842 or the 1895 auction. | 1895 | Sir Horace Walpole coined the term serendipity when writing about this painting to Horace Mann (January 28, 1754) |
17th century
Status | Creation date(s) (est.) | Known as | Creator | Commission/provenance note | Loss event | Year lost (est.) | Surviving copies and documentation | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Missing | A Christus head | Annibale Carracci | |||||||
Destroyed | 1602 | The Armada Tapestries | Vroom, Hendrick | For Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham; sold to James I, 1616 and placed in the House of Lords, London by Oliver Cromwell, 1650 | Burning of Parliament[25] | 1834 | Engraved by John Pine, 1739[26] | ||
Destroyed | Equestrian bronze statue of Henry IV of France | Giovanni da Bologna | Presented to Marie de Medicis by Cosimo II of Tuscany in 1614 | Melted for cannon during the French Revolution | 1789–1799 | ||||
Missing | Time Saving Truth from Envy and Discord | Nicolas Poussin | Untraced since 1840 | 1840 | |||||
Destroyed | 1630 | The Martyrdom of Erasmus | Nicolas Poussin | Bombing of Dresden, February 1945 | 1945 | ||||
Destroyed | 1637–1640 | Penance, one of the seven Sacraments | Nicolas Poussin | Belvoir Castle fire | 1816 | ||||
Destroyed | 1650 | Ceiling reliefs of plants and garlands | Roger Pratt | Coleshill House fire[27] | 1952 | Photographs survive[27] | |||
Destroyed | 1658 | Queen Esther Approaching the Palace of Ahasuerus | Claude Lorrain | Fonthill Abbey fire[28] | 1755 | A fragment in the collection of the Earl of Leicester, Holkham Hall | |||
Destroyed | 1660–1673 | Apollo Guarding the Herds of Admetus and Mercury Stealing Them | Claude Lorrain | Holker Hall fire[4] | 1871 | ||||
Missing | 1666–1673 | Aeneas and the Sibyl of Cumae | Claude Lorrain | One of four works commissioned by Prince Falconieri | Liber Veritatis 183 | ||||
Lost at sea | 1601–02 | The Crucifixion | Peter Paul Rubens | Painted for the Church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, Rome | Imported to England 1811; there auctioned 1812, 1820; lost at sea after last date | after 1820[29] | |||
Missing | 1609 | Judith Beheading Holofernes | Rubens | Known only though the 1610 engraving by Cornelis Galle the Elder | |||||
Destroyed | Madonna of the Rosary | Rubens | Painted for the Royal Chapel of the Dominican Church, Brussels | Bombardment of Brussels | 1695 | ||||
Destroyed | 1610 | Virgin Adorned with Flowers by Saint Anne | Rubens | Painted for the Church of the Carmelite Friars, Brussels | Bombardment of Brussels | 1695 | |||
Destroyed | 1613 | Saint Job Triptych | Rubens | Painted for Saint Nicholas Church, Brussels | Bombardment of Brussels | 1695 | |||
Destroyed | Cambyses Appointing Otanes Judge | Rubens | Decoration for the Magistrates' Hall, Brussels | Bombardment of Brussels | 1695 | ||||
Destroyed | Judgment of Solomon | Rubens | Decoration for the Magistrates' Hall, Brussels | Bombardment of Brussels | 1695 | ||||
Destroyed | Last Judgment | Rubens | Decoration for the Magistrates' Hall, Brussels | Bombardment of Brussels | 1695 | ||||
Destroyed | 1615 | Neptune and Amphitrite | Rubens | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | ||||
Destroyed | Nativity | Rubens | Coudenberg Palace fire | 1731 | |||||
Destroyed | Adoration of the Magi | Rubens | Coudenberg Palace fire | 1731 | |||||
Destroyed | Pentecost | Rubens | Coudenberg Palace fire | 1731 | |||||
Missing | 1617–18 | Susannah and the Elders | Rubens | Engraved 1620 by Lucas Vosterman | |||||
Missing | 1618 | Satyr, Nymph, Putti and Leopards | Rubens | Now known only from engraving | |||||
Destroyed | The Abduction of Proserpine | Rubens | Fire at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, February 5, 1861[30] | 1861 | Engraved before 1621 by Pieter Soutman | ||||
Destroyed | 1622 | Crucifixion with Mary, St. John, Magdalen | Rubens | English Civil War: English Parliamentarians in the Queen's Chapel, Somerset House, London, 1643[31] | 1643 | ||||
Destroyed | 1628 | Portrait of Philip IV of Spain | Rubens | Incendiary attack at the Kunsthaus, Zurich, in 1985[32] | 1985 | ||||
Destroyed | 1635–1638 | Diana and Nymphs Surprised by Satyrs | Rubens | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | ||||
Missing | Equestrian Portrait of the Archduke Albert | Rubens | |||||||
Destroyed | Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV of Spain | Rubens | Royal Alcázar of Madrid fire | 1734 | A copy is in the Uffizi Gallery | ||||
Destroyed | The Continence of Scipio | Rubens | Fire in the Western Exchange, Old Bond Street, London, March 1836[33] | 1836 | |||||
Destroyed | The Lion Hunt | Rubens | Removed by Napoleon's agents from Schloss Schleissheim, near Munich, 1800 | Fire at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux[34] | 1870 | ||||
Destroyed | Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Buckingham | Rubens | Later owned by the Earl of Jersey at Osterley Park | Fire[35] | 1949 | ||||
Destroyed | Series of 39 ceiling paintings for the Jesuit Church in Antwerp (nl:Carolus Borromeuskerk#Branden, Dutch wiki) | Van Dyck (largely executed by), Rubens (designed by) | Fire | 1718 | Engravings by Jan Punt (Amsterdam 1751) of 31 of the paintings from drawings executed 1711-12 by Jacob de Wit exist[36] | ||||
Destroyed | Vision of Saint Hubert | Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | |||||
Destroyed | Allegories of Sight and Smell | Jan Brueghel the Elder and other artists | Bought (with the following entry) by the City of Antwerp and hung in audience hall, Tervuren Castle 1619[37] | Coudenberg Palace fire | 1731 | ||||
Destroyed | Allegories of Hearing, Taste and Touch | Jan Brueghel the Elder and other artists | Coudenberg Palace fire | 1731 | |||||
Missing | 1641 | Portrait of Jules Mazarin before his appointment as Cardinal | Van Dyck | The French rebellion of the Frond. Sold at an auction by the Tribunal of Paris between the 28th of December 1651 and February 1652 | 1651–2 | ||||
Destroyed | 1634-35 | Group Portrait of the Town Council of Brussels | Van Dyck | Bombardment of Brussels | 1695 | ||||
Destroyed | Christ Crowned with Thorns | Van Dyck | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | |||||
Destroyed | Lamentation over Christ | Van Dyck | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | |||||
Destroyed | Nymphs Surprised by Satyrs | Van Dyck | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | |||||
Destroyed | Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist | Van Dyck | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | |||||
Destroyed | Adoration of the Shepherds (Birth of Christ) | Gerrit van Honthorst | Uffizi car bombing | 1993 | |||||
Destroyed | 1627 | Six Gold and Silver Smiths (The "Bankers of Amsterdam") | Thomas de Keyser | Fire at the Musée de Beaux Arts, Strasbourg, August 13, 1947[38] (one of 30 paintings destroyed) | 1947 | ||||
Missing | 1646 | The Circumcision | Rembrandt | Executed for the Stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange | Went missing in the 18th century | 1700–99 | A presumed copy is in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig, Germany | ||
Destroyed | Bentheim Castle with Christ and Disciples on the Road to Emmaus | Jacob van Ruisdael | Museum Boymans fire | 1864 | |||||
Destroyed | The Windmill | Jacob van Ruisdael | Holker Hall fire[39] | 1871 | |||||
Destroyed | Large family portrait | Carel Fabritius | Museum Boymans fire | 1864 | |||||
Destroyed | Sleeping Man | Aelbert Cuyp | Museum Boymans fire | 1864 | |||||
Destroyed | Tobias Healing His Father | Jan Steen | Museum Boymans fire[40] | 1864 | |||||
Destroyed | White Ox in a Field | Paulus Potter | Museum Boymans fire | 1864 | |||||
Destroyed | Large Herd of Oxen | Paulus Potter | Purchased for Fl. 9050, Braamcamp sale, Amsterdam, 1771 by agents of Catherine the Great. | Vrouw Maria sinking[41] | 1771 | ||||
Missing | A Gentleman washing his hands in a see-through room (half-door) with sculptures, artful and rare | Vermeer | Listed in the catalogue of the Dissius auction, Holland, 1696 | ||||||
Destroyed | 1601 | The Inspiration of Matthew first version | Caravaggio | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | ||||
Destroyed | 1605 | Christ on the Mount of Olives | Caravaggio | From the collection of Vincenzo Giustiniani | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | |||
Missing | A portrait of Alof de Wignacourt | Caravaggio | |||||||
Destroyed | Saint John | Caravaggio | Done for the Fenaroli chapel, Sant'Anna dei Lombardi, Naples | Earthquake | 1798 | ||||
Destroyed | Saint Francis | Caravaggio | Done for the Fenaroli chapel, Sant'Anna dei Lombardi, Naples | Earthquake | 1798 | ||||
Destroyed | Resurrection | Caravaggio | Done for the Fenaroli chapel, Sant'Anna dei Lombardi, Naples | Earthquake | 1798 | A 1763 description by Charles-Nicolas Cochin[42] survives. | |||
Missing | Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence | Caravaggio | For the Oratorio of San Lorenzo, Palermo | Stolen | 1969 | ||||
Destroyed | The Conversion of Saint Paul altarpiece | Orazio Gentileschi | Done for the basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome | Fire | 1823 | ||||
Destroyed | The Stoning of Saint Stephen altarpiece | Lavinia Fontana | Done for the basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome | Fire | 1823 | ||||
Destroyed | 1628 | Hercules and Omphale | Artemisia Gentileschi | Painted for Philip IV of Spain | Royal Alcázar of Madrid fire | 1734 | |||
Destroyed | 1650–1652 | Bathsheba | Artemisia Gentileschi | Fire at Gosford House, Scotland[43] | 1940 | ||||
Destroyed | La Buonavventura | Bartolomeo Manfredi | Uffizi car bombing | 1993 | |||||
Destroyed | Ciclo Vito | Bartolomeo Manfredi | Uffizi car bombing | 1993 | |||||
Destroyed | Danae | Annibale Carracci | Formerly Ellesmere collection, Bridgewater House, Westminster, London | World War II, May 11, 1941 | 1941 | ||||
Destroyed | 1600 | Saint Gregory Praying for Souls in Purgatory, altarpiece | Annibale Caracci | For the church of San Gregorio Magno, Rome; formerly Ellesmere collection, Bridgewater House, Westminster, London | World War II, May 11, 1941 | 1941 | |||
Destroyed | Descent from the Cross | Ludovico Carracci | Formerly Ellesmere collection, Bridgewater House, Westminster, London | World War II, May 11, 1941 | 1941 | ||||
Destroyed | Bacchus and Ariadne | Guido Reni | Commissioned for Queen Henrietta Maria's house at Greenwich, 1637 | Destroyed in France in the 17th century by the widow of Michel Particelli d'Hemery, who was scandalized by the female nudes it contained[44] | 1700–99 | A fragment with the head of Ariadne survives | |||
Destroyed | Immaculate Conception | Guido Reni | Formerly Seville Cathedral, Spain, later in the Ellesmere collection, Bridgewater House, Westminster, London | World War II, May 11, 1941 | 1941 | ||||
Destroyed | Bust of King Charles I (Bernini) | Bernini | Whitehall Palace fire, London | 1698 | |||||
Destroyed | Crucified Christ in bronze | Bernini | Formerly in the French royal collection | French Revolution | 1789–1799 | ||||
Destroyed | 1627 | Expulsion of the Moors with Philip III | Velasquez | Royal Alcázar of Madrid fire | 1734 | ||||
Destroyed | Venus and Adonis | Velasquez | Royal Alcázar of Madrid fire | 1734 | |||||
Destroyed | Cupid and Psyche | Velasquez | Royal Alcázar of Madrid fire | 1734 | |||||
Destroyed | Apollo and Marsyas | Velasquez | Royal Alcázar of Madrid fire | 1734 | |||||
Missing | Francesco de Ochoa | Velasquez | One of two portraits of royal jesters for the Buen Retiro Palace, Madrid | ||||||
Missing | Cardenas the Toreador | Velasquez | One of two portraits of royal jesters for the Buen Retiro Palace, Madrid | ||||||
Missing | Pelican with Bucket and Donkeys | Velasquez | For the Palace of Buen Retiro, Madrid | ||||||
Destroyed | Saint Bonaventure Reveals the Crucifix to Saint Thomas Aquinas | Zurbarán | Commissioned by the Colegio de San Buenaventura, Seville. Taken from Spain by Marshal Soult | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | ||||
Destroyed | Caritas Romana (Roman Charity) | Murillo | Taken from Spain by Joseph Bonaparte and sold to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art | Fire | 1845 | ||||
Destroyed | 1692–1702 | Frescoes of The Labors of Hercules | Luca Giordano | For the Buen Retiro Palace of Charles II of Spain, Madrid | Destroyed in the 19th century | 1800–99 | |||
Destroyed | Frescoes of the Life of Saint Benedict | Luca Giordano | Painted for the Abbey of Monte Cassino | Bombing, Battle of Monte Cassino, February 15, 1944 | 1944 | ||||
Destroyed | William III Leading Troops at the Battle of the Boyne | Godfrey Kneller | Grocers' Hall Fire, London, 22 September | 1965 |
18th century
Status | Creation date(s) (est.) | Known as | Creator | Commission/provenance note | Loss event | Year lost (est.) | Surviving copies and documentation | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Missing | The White Duck | Jean-Baptiste Oudry | Houghton Hall theft | 1990 | ||||
Missing | The Amber Room of the Catherine Palace | Stolen by Germans during World War II | 1941–1945 | |||||
Destroyed | 1702 | Venus Imploring Jupiter on Behalf of Aeneas, the ceiling painting for the Grand Gallery of the Palais-Royal | Antoine Coypel | Destroyed in the late 18th century | after 1783 | A sketch for it survives | ||
Missing, believed destroyed | 1716 | An equestrian statue of King George I of Great Britain | John van Nost | Formerly part of the Duke of Chandos' collection at Cannons; moved to Leicester Square in London in 1784 | Badly vandalised; later sold and removed[45] | 1872 | ||
Missing | The Drawing Lesson | Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin | ||||||
Missing | A Girl Reciting her Gospel | Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin | ||||||
Destroyed | 1724–25 | Still Life with Copper Kettle, Bowl with Eggs | Chardin | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | |||
Destroyed | c. 1719 | Decorations for the Chateau de la Muette: the Goddess Ki Mao Sao in the Kingdom of Mang in the country of Laos | Watteau | French Revolution | 1789–1799 | |||
Destroyed | Spring (Printemps) | Watteau | One of a series of four paintings of the Seasons, painted for the banker Pierre Crozat | Lost, then rediscovered in 1964, destroyed by fire two years later | 1966 | |||
Missing | Autumn | Watteau | One of a series of four paintings of the Seasons, painted by Watteau for the banker Pierre Crozat | |||||
Missing | Winter | Watteau | One of a series of four paintings of the Seasons, painted by Watteau for the banker Pierre Crozat | |||||
Missing | Jay and Oriole Hung by the Feet | Jean-Baptiste Oudry | Exhibited at the Salon of 1751 | |||||
Destroyed | 1731 | A Harlot's Progress (the original paintings) | William Hogarth | Fire at Fonthill Abbey | 1755 | 1732 engravings survive | ||
Destroyed | 1738 | Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn | William Hogarth | Fire at Littleton House in December[46] | 1874 | An engraving by the artist survives | ||
Destroyed | William Bouverie | Thomas Hudson | Coleshill House fire[27] | 1952 | ||||
Destroyed | Anne Bouverie | Thomas Hudson | Coleshill House fire[27] | 1952 | ||||
Destroyed | Mary Bouverie | Thomas Hudson | Coleshill House fire[27] | 1952 | ||||
Destroyed | Fresco of The Translation of the Holy House of Loreto | Gianbattista Tiepolo | In the Church of the Scalzi, Venice | Austrian shelling in World War I | 1915 | There is a copy of the entire ceiling from before 1914, painted in gouache after the original by Mariano Fortuny, a 1914 photograph by James Anderson and a reconstruction drawing (2019) by Olivier Maceratesi | ||
Destroyed | c. 1754 | Frescoes glorifying the Soderini family | Gianbattista Tiepolo and Giandomenico Tiepolo | Villa Soderini, Nervesa della Battaglia, in the Veneto | Italo-Austrian engagement in World War I, June 15–19[47] | 1918 | Photographs survive. | |
Missing | Mars Resting ceiling painting | Gianbattista Tiepolo | Executed for Rinaldi's Chinese palace, Oranienbaum, Russia | Transferred to Pavlovsk for safekeeping; vanished | 1941 | |||
Destroyed | 1731 | The Triumph of the Arts and Sciences ceiling fresco | Gianbattista Tiepolo | Palazzo Archinto, Milan bombing[48] | 1943 | Photographs survive | ||
Destroyed | 1731 | Apollo and Phaethon ceiling fresco | Gianbattista Tiepolo | Palazzo Archinto, Milan bombing | 1943 | |||
Destroyed | 1731 | Perseus and Andromeda ceiling fresco | Gianbattista Tiepolo | Palazzo Archinto, Milan bombing | 1943 | |||
Destroyed | 1731 | Juno with Fortuna and Venus ceiling fresco | Gianbattista Tiepolo | Palazzo Archinto, Milan bombing | 1943 | |||
Destroyed | 1761 | Triumph of Hercules ceiling fresco | Gianbattista Tiepolo | Painted for the principal salon of the Palazzo Canossa, Verona | Reduced to fragments by bombing in the Second World War | 1945 | ||
Destroyed | Nativity | Sir Joshua Reynolds | Belvoir Castle fire[49] | 1816 | ||||
Destroyed | The Infant Jupiter | Sir Joshua Reynolds | Belvoir Castle fire | 1816 | ||||
Destroyed | General James Oglethorpe | Sir Joshua Reynolds | Belvoir Castle fire | 1816 | ||||
Destroyed | 1766 | David Garrick leaning on a bust of Shakespeare | Gainsborough | Painted for the Stratford Shakespeare Jubilee | Fire at Stratford-upon-Avon Town Hall[50] | 1946 | Known from engravings and various copies | |
Destroyed | c. 1754 | Wooded landscape with gipsies round a camp fire also named The Gipsies | Gainsborough | Lost by 1831 | 1831 | A 1764 engraving published by John Boydell exists | ||
Destroyed | 1787 | The Woodman and his Dog in a Storm | Gainsborough | Fire at Exton Old Park[51] | 1810 | A 1791 mezzotint by Pierre Simon exists | ||
Destroyed | Cottage Children with an Ass | Gainsborough | Fire at Exton Old Park | 1810 | Survives in mezzotint | |||
Destroyed | Portrait of Sir Francis Sykes of Basildon with a groom, two horses, and a dog | Gainsborough | Fire at the Pantechnicon warehouse, London February 13–14[52] | 1874 | ||||
Destroyed | The Destruction of Niobe's Children | Richard Wilson | Formerly National Gallery, London | World War II | 1944 | |||
Destroyed | Numerous colonial portraits | John Singleton Copley | Formerly belonging to Peter Wainwright | Great Boston Fire of 1872[53] | 1872 | |||
Destroyed | 1777 | Portrait of Thomas Paine | Charles Willson Peale | Exhibited in Peale's Museum to 1854, later owned by T.B. MacDonough and the actor Joseph Jefferson | Fire at Joseph Jefferson's summer house in Buttermilk Bay, April 1, 1893[54] | 1893 | An engraving survives. | |
Destroyed | Bust of the composer Gluck in marble | Jean-Antoine Houdon | Fire at the Paris Opera | 1873 | Terra cotta versions exist | |||
Missing | 1781 | The Eidophusikon | Philip James de Loutherbourg | |||||
Destroyed | 1784 | Glorification of the Giustiniani Family (fresco) | Giandomenico Tiepolo | Executed for the Doge's Palace, Genoa | Allowed to decay and replaced by another fresco | 1866 | A preliminary sketch is in the Metropolitan Museum. | |
Missing | 1793 | Louis-Michel le Peletier, marquis de Saint-Fargeau on his Death Bed | Jacques-Louis David | Exhibited with David's Marat in the courtyard of the Louvre, 16 October 1793 | An engraving by Anatole Desvoges exists | |||
Destroyed | 1797–98 | George III and the Prince of Wales Reviewing Troops | William Beechey | Windsor Castle fire | 1992 | - |
19th century
Status | Creation date(s) (est.) | Known as | Creator | Commission/provenance note | Loss event | Year lost (est.) | Surviving copies and documentation | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Destroyed | 1806 | Don Antonio de Porcel | Goya | Fire in the Jockey Club, Buenos Aires | 1956 | |||
Missing | 1808 | A Vision of the Last Judgment | William Blake | Earlier versions and sketches survive, but the final version has not been seen since the cancellation of an 1810 exhibit it was to have been part of | ||||
Destroyed | Seated portrait of President Washington | Gilbert Stuart | Library of Congress fire | 1851 | ||||
Destroyed | Seated portrait of President Adams | Gilbert Stuart | Library of Congress fire | 1851 | ||||
Destroyed | Seated portrait of President Jefferson | Gilbert Stuart | Library of Congress fire | 1851 | ||||
Destroyed | Portrait of Peyton Randolph, Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses | Charles Willson Peale | Library of Congress fire | 1851 | ||||
Destroyed | George Washington, marble sculpture | Canova | Fire in the North Carolina State House, Raleigh | 1831 | The artist's plaster model survives | |||
Destroyed | The Dream of Love (Jupiter and Io) | Rembrandt Peale | Fire while on exhibition in New York prior to 1855, according to the artist | Before 1855 | ||||
Destroyed | Musidora | Rembrandt Peale | Fire at a Philadelphia art gallery in 1850 or 1851 | 1850–51 | ||||
Destroyed | 1807–08 | Winter | Caspar David Friedrich | Glaspalast (Munich) fire | 1931 | |||
Destroyed | 1818 | The Farewell | Caspar David Friedrich | Glaspalast (Munich) fire | 1931 | |||
Destroyed | c. 1820 | The Harbor at Grifswald | Caspar David Friedrich | Glaspalast (Munich) fire | 1931 | |||
Destroyed | 1824 | Autumn Landscape with Brush Collector | Caspar David Friedrich | Glaspalast (Munich) fire | 1931 | |||
Destroyed | 1825 | Evening | Caspar David Friedrich | Glaspalast (Munich) fire | 1931 | |||
Destroyed | 1811 | Mountain Chapel in the Mist | Caspar David Friedrich | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | |||
Destroyed | 1817–18 | Monastery Graveyard in the Snow | Caspar David Friedrich | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | |||
Destroyed | 1824 | High Mountain Region | Caspar David Friedrich | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | |||
Destroyed | 1830–1835 | Northern Lights | Caspar David Friedrich | Friedrichshain flak tower fire | 1945 | |||
Destroyed | 1807 | The Mouth of the Thames | Turner | World War II | 1939–1945 | |||
Destroyed | 1830 | Fish Market on the Sands | Turner | formerly owned by Billy Rose | Fire | 1956 | ||
Missing | 1850 | Aeneas Relating his Story to Dido | Turner | |||||
Destroyed | 1846 | War and Peace | Sir Edwin Landseer | Thames flooding the basement of the Tate Gallery, January | 1928 | Engravings of both survive. A copy of War appeared on the television program Fake or Fortune, where it was thought to possibly be the original.[55] | ||
Destroyed | 1850s | Jupiter on Mount Olympus ceiling fresco | Mario Bragaldi | Done for Emperor Pedro II of Brazil | National Museum of Brazil fire | 2018 | ||
Destroyed | 1850s | Justice ceiling fresco | Mario Bragaldi | National Museum of Brazil fire | 2018 | |||
Destroyed | 1850s | Fortitude ceiling fresco | Mario Bragaldi | National Museum of Brazil fire | 2018 | |||
Destroyed | 1850s | Temperance ceiling fresco | Mario Bragaldi | National Museum of Brazil fire | 2018 | |||
Destroyed | 1850s | Prudence ceiling fresco | Mario Bragaldi | National Museum of Brazil fire | 2018 | |||
Missing | 1840–1846 | Mississippi River Panorama | John Banvard | Cut into pieces | 1850–99 | |||
Destroyed | 1849–50 | Washington Crossing the Delaware (first version) | Emanuel Leutze | Air raid on Bremen | 1942 | |||
Destroyed | Apotheosis of Napoleon I ceiling painting | Ingres | Hôtel de Ville fire[56] | 1871 | ||||
Destroyed | 1830 | The Storming of the Bastille | Delaroche, Paul | Hôtel de Ville fire | 1871 | |||
Destroyed | 1826 | Justinian Drafting his Laws | Delacroix, Eugène | Painted for the Council of State, Paris | Fire in the Paris Commune | 1871 | An 1855 photograph survives[57] | |
Destroyed | 1852–1854 | Peace Consoles Mankind and Brings Abundance | Delacroix, Eugène | Hôtel de Ville fire | 1871 | |||
Destroyed | 1848 | Murals of War and Peace | Théodore Chassériau | Painted for the Cour des Comptes, Palais of the Quai d'Orsay, Paris | Fire in the Paris Commune | 1871 | A fragment of Peace is preserved in the Louvre | |
Destroyed | 1856 | Napoleon III | Winterhalter, Franz Xaver | Tuileries Palace fire | 1871 | Models by the artist and copies exist | ||
Destroyed | 1856 | Empress Eugénie | Winterhalter, Franz Xaver | Tuileries Palace fire | 1871 | Models by the artist and copies exist | ||
Destroyed | The Jewish Captivity in Babylon | Jean-François Millet | Submitted for the Paris Salon, 1848 | Painted over by the artist with a scene executed in Normandy | 1870–71 | |||
Destroyed | The Stone Breakers | Courbet | World War II, while in transit from the Dresden Gallery | 1939–1945 | ||||
Destroyed | 1863 | The Return from the Conference | Courbet | Destroyed by its owner due to its anticlerical content | 1909 | |||
Destroyed | 1864 | Venus and Psyche | Courbet | Enemy air action, Berlin, World War II | 1945 | |||
Missing | 1864 | Soirée d'été (Summer Evening) | Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Paris Salon | 1865 | |||
Missing | 1866 | Paysage avec deux personnages (Landscape with two people) | Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Paris Salon | 1866 | The painting was documented by Frédéric Bazille as a painting within a painting in Bazille's Studio (1870). It appears visible in the upper right hand corner of that work. The lower half of Renoir's work survives as Woman with a Bird, which was stolen by the Nazis during WWII and recovered by the Russian Red Army. It now appears in the Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum. | ||
Missing | 1867-68 | La Sortie du port | Claude Monet | Submitted for the Paris Salon, 1868 | Paris Salon | 1868 | Smaller studies and sketches for the now lost painting survive as The Entrance to the Port of Le Havre held by the Norton Simon Museum. | |
Missing | 1873–75 | View of Auvers-sur-Oise | Cézanne | Ashmolean Museum theft | 1999 | |||
Missing | 1878 | Les Muses des arts | Marie Bracquemond | Submitted to the Exposition Universelle (1878) | Last reported location was at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1919. | |||
Missing | 1880 | The Swallow | Marie Bracquemond | Submitted to the Fifth Impressionist Exhibition | ||||
Destroyed | 1882 | Donkey Cart with Boy and Scheveningen Woman | Van Gogh | Formerly in Rotterdam | Fire | 1940 | ||
Missing | 1884 | The Plague in Rome | Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl | |||||
Destroyed | 1885 | The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen with Pond and Figures | Van Gogh | In the German bombing of Rotterdam during World War II | 1940 | |||
Destroyed | 1886 | Windmill on Montmartre | Van Gogh | Fire | 1967 | |||
Destroyed | 1888 | Still Life: Vase with Five Sunflowers | Van Gogh | Formerly in the collection of Koyata Yamamoto, Japan | American air raids on Ashiya District, August 5–6[58] | 1945 | ||
Destroyed | 1888 | The Painter on his Way to Work | Van Gogh | Formerly in the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum, Berlin | Fire in World War II | 1939–1945 | ||
Destroyed | 1888 | The Park at Arles with the Entrance Seen Through the Trees | Van Gogh | Fire in World War II | 1939–1945 | |||
Missing | 1888 | The Lovers: The Poet's Garden IV | Van Gogh | Declared degenerate and confiscated by the Nazis, Whereabouts unknown | 1937 | |||
Destroyed | The New Jerusalem | George Inness | Partial collapse of Madison Square Garden[59] | 1880 | Salvaged fragments survive, including Valley of the Olive Trees in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore | |||
Destroyed | 1895 | Portrait of French playwright Alfred Jarry | Henri Rousseau | Destroyed by the sitter, who disliked it | ||||
Missing | 1891-92 | Diana (Saint Gaudens) bronze sculpture (first version) | Augustus Saint-Gaudens | Designed to crown the Madison Square Garden tower | Replaced by the artist with a lighter, smaller copper version | |||
Missing | 1892 | [Mural depicting the “Modern Woman” for the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition and Fair | Mary Cassatt | Designed to occupy the tympanum over the entrance way to Women's Building | Disappeared while in storage | |||
Destroyed | Head of Sir Henry Irving | John Singer Sargent | Destroyed by the sitter, who disliked it | |||||
Presumed Destroyed | c. 1899 | Portrait of Thomas Eakins | William Merritt Chase | Presumed destroyed by the sitter | ||||
Missing | 1886 | Hen with Sapphire Pendant | Fabergé | Russian Revolution | 1922 | |||
Missing | 1888 | Cherub with Chariot | Fabergé | Russian Revolution | 1922 | |||
Missing | 1889 | Necessaire egg | Fabergé | Russian Revolution | 1922 | |||
Missing | 1898 | Mauve egg | Fabergé | Russian Revolution | 1922 | |||
Missing | 1899 | Furor Teutonicus | Paja Jovanović | An over 20 square meter painting last seen at the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts (where the painting was also known as Los Barbaros) | Lost sometime between 1911 and World War II | 1911–39 | A heliogravure copy and an oil canvas sketch survive at the Belgrade City Museum.[60] |
20th century
Status | Creation date(s) (est.) | Known as | Creator | Commission/provenance note | Loss event | Year lost (est.) | Surviving copies and documentation | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Destroyed | 1898 | Musik II | Gustav Klimt | Formerly in the Lederer family collection, Vienna | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | ||
Destroyed | 1899 | Schubert at the Piano | Gustav Klimt | Formerly in the Lederer family collection, Vienna | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | ||
Destroyed | 1899 | Portrait of Serena Lederer | Gustav Klimt | Formerly in the Lederer family collection, Vienna | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | ||
Destroyed | 1899–1907 | Medicine | Gustav Klimt | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | |||
Destroyed | 1899–1907 | Philosophy | Gustav Klimt | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | |||
Destroyed | 1899–1907 | Jurisprudence | Gustav Klimt | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | |||
Destroyed | 1903 | Golden Apple Tree | Gustav Klimt | Formerly in the Lederer family collection, Vienna | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | ||
Destroyed | 1903 | Procession of the Dead | Gustav Klimt | Formerly in the Lederer family collection, Vienna | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | ||
Missing | 1903 | Royal Danish Egg | Fabergé | Russian Revolution | 1922 | |||
Missing | 1909 | Alexander III Commemorative Egg | Fabergé | Russian Revolution | 1922 | |||
Destroyed | 1910 | Composition I | Wassily Kandinsky | Destroyed in British air raid on Braunschweig, Germany | 1944 | Known from photographs | ||
Destroyed | 1910 | Tammany Hall at Night | John Sloan | Fire, during transit | The artist later created a replica from photographs | |||
Missing | 1910 | Nu à la cheminée | Jean Metzinger | 1910 Salon d'Automne | Black & white images survive | |||
Destroyed | 1911–12 | Farm Garden with Crucifix | Gustav Klimt | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | Color images survive | ||
Missing | 1911–12 | Man with a Pipe | Jean Metzinger | Exhibition of Cubist and Futurist Pictures, Boggs & Buhl, 1913, New York | Missing from Lawrence University since 1998, having disappeared while in transit on loan.[61] | 1998 | Images survive | |
Presumed destroyed | 1911–12 | Groupe de femmes (Groupe de trois femmes) | Joseph Csaky | 1912 Salon d'Automne, 1913 Salon des Indépendants, Paris | Went missing during the First World War | Black & white images survive | ||
Presumed destroyed | 1912 | Danseuse, (Femme à l'éventail) | Joseph Csaky | 1912 Salon d'Automne, Paris, Galerie Moos, Geneva, 1920 | Black & white images survive | |||
Destroyed | 1912 | La Vie Familiale (Family Life) | Alexander Archipenko | 1912 Salon d'Automne, 1913 Armory Show, New York | Destroyed in Paris during the First World War bombardment | Black & white images survive | ||
Missing | 1912 | Paysage près de Paris (Landschaft bei Paris) | Albert Gleizes | Hannover | Confiscated by the Nazis around 1937[62][63] | 1937 | Black & white image survive | |
Destroyed | 1912[64] | Rood screen, with sixteen paintings | Ninian Comper | Part of St Ethelburga's Bishopsgate, City of London[65] | Bishopsgate bombing | 1993 | Black & white images survive | |
Presumed destroyed | 1913 | Head (Tête d'homme) | Joseph Csaky | 1913 Salon des Indépendants, Paris, Galerie Moos, Geneva, 1920 | Black & white images survive | |||
Missing | 1913 | En Canot (In Boot) | Jean Metzinger | Kronprinzenpalais, Nationalgalerie, Berlin | Confiscated by the Nazis around 1936, displayed at the Degenerate Art Exhibition in Munich and other cities, 1937–38, missing ever since.[66] | 1937-38 | Black & white images survive | |
Destroyed | 1913 | Malcesine on Lake Garda | Gustav Klimt | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | Color images survive | ||
Destroyed | 1916 | Garden Path with Chickens | Gustav Klimt | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | Color images survive | ||
Destroyed | 1916 | Portrait of Wally | Gustav Klimt | Formerly in the Lederer family collection, Vienna | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | ||
Destroyed | 1916–17 | The Girlfriends | Gustav Klimt | Formerly in the Lederer family collection, Vienna | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | Color images survive | |
Destroyed | 1917 | Leda | Gustav Klimt | Formerly in the Lederer family collection, Vienna | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | ||
Destroyed | 1917 | Gastein | Gustav Klimt | Schloss Immendorf fire | 1945 | |||
Missing | 1917 | Fountain (Duchamp) | Marcel Duchamp | 1918 | Black & white images survive, as do sixteen artist-sanctioned replicas | |||
Destroyed | 1925 | Water Lilies (major study) | Claude Monet | Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) fire | 1958[67] | |||
Destroyed | 1925 | Water Lilies (small study) | Claude Monet | Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) fire | 1961 | |||
Destroyed | 1933 | Man at the Crossroads mural | Diego Rivera | Nelson Rockefeller commissioned the work | Rockefeller was offended (it included a portrait of Lenin) and had it removed | 1934 | Rivera later recreated the work as Man, Controller of the Universe in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. | |
Missing | 1936 | The Trench | Otto Dix | Exhibited at the 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibit | Nazi Plunder | 1937[68] | ||
Destroyed | 1936 | Bust of Haile Selassie | Hilda Seligman | Originally located in the house in Wimbledon, London where Selassie lived in exile; moved to nearby Cannizaro Park in 1957 | Destroyed by protesters; the vandalism was linked to unrest in Ethiopia and persecution of the Oromo people | 2020[69] | ||
Presumed destroyed | 1937 | The Reaper a large mural on panels depicting a Catalan peasant | Joan Miró | Created for the Spanish Republican pavilion of the 1937 Paris Exposition | Subsequently, sent to Valencia, where it was presumably destroyed | 1937 | Photographs of the installed mural exist | |
Destroyed | 1944 | The Seven Lively Arts a series of seven paintings | Salvador Dalí | For Billy Rose | Fire | 1956 | Known only from photographs | |
Destroyed | 1940–1946 | Works housed in his studio | Arshile Gorky | Arshile Gorky Studio Fire | 1946 | |||
Destroyed | 1940–1946 | 15 Works | Arshile Gorky | American Airlines Flight 1 plane crash | 1962 | |||
Destroyed | 1947 | Corn Belt City | Edward Hopper | Park Avenue apartment fire | 1975 | |||
Destroyed | 1954 | Portrait of Winston Churchill | Graham Sutherland | Deliberately destroyed by the Churchills' private secretary | 1954 | Color photographs survive | ||
Destroyed | 1956 | Some 20 works created on camera and then deliberately destroyed for the documentary Le Mystère Picasso (The Mystery of Picasso) | Pablo Picasso | 1956 | ||||
Destroyed | 1909-1912 | Cubist Head | Pablo Picasso | Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro fire[8] | 1978 | |||
Destroyed | 1937 | Portrait of Dora Maar | Pablo Picasso | Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro fire[8] | 1978 | |||
Missing | 1950–1953 | Study after Velázquez III | Francis Bacon | Third in a series of portraits after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1650 | Thought destroyed by the artist until the first two surfaced in 1999[70] | 1953 | ||
Destroyed | 1967 | Untitled Wall Relief, an acrylic lacquer on Plexiglas piece | Craig Kauffman | Fell off the wall at the Pompidou Center of Paris and shattered on July 16 | 2006 | [71] | ||
Destroyed | 1971 | Untitled piece, molded polyester resin work | Peter Alexander | Fell and shattered at the Pompidou Center of Paris in April 2006 | 2006 | [71] | ||
Destroyed | 1971 | World Trade Center Stabile a 25' red steel sculpture | Alexander Calder | World Trade Center Collapse | 2001 | [72] | ||
Destroyed | 1972 | World Trade Center Plaza Sculpture | Masayuki Nagare | Survived the initial collapse of the buildings, and was destroyed during cleanup. | World Trade Center Collapse | 2001 | [72] | |
Destroyed | 1973 | The World Trade Center Tapestry a 20' x 35' tapestry | Joan Miró, Josep Royo | Hung in the South Tower Lobby | World Trade Center Collapse | 2001 | [72] | |
Destroyed | 1971–72 or 1974–1976 | One painting from The Entablature Series | Roy Lichtenstein | World Trade Center Collapse | 2001 | |||
Destroyed | 1974 | Ideogram | James Rosati | World Trade Center Collapse | 2001 | [72] | ||
Destroyed | 1978 | Sky Gate, New York | Louise Nevelson | World Trade Center Collapse | 2001 | [72] | ||
Destroyed | 1978 | The Chartist Mural, a 115 by 12 feet mosaic mural in Newport, Wales | Kenneth Budd | Deliberately destroyed in October to make way for new development[73] | 2013 | |||
Presumed destroyed | 1982 | The Pearl Monument, which stood in the center of the Pearl Roundabout, Bahrain | It was torn down by the Bahraini government on 18 March because it had been a focal point for protesters | 2011 | ||||
Missing | 1984 | Hole and Vessel wood and cement sculpture | Anish Kapoor | Discovered missing from its storage unit | 2004 | |||
Missing | 1986 | Equal-Parallel/Guernica-Bengasi a 38-ton metal sculpture | Richard Serra | Formerly displayed at the Reina Sofia museum | Could not be located in 2006[74][75] | 2006 | ||
Destroyed | 1989 | Goddess of Democracy | Students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts | Destroyed by The People's Liberation Army during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 | 1989 | |||
Destroyed | 1993 | "House" an enormous temporary sculpture | Rachel Whiteread | Removed by London Borough of Tower Hamlets council on 11 January | 1994 | |||
Destroyed | 1901–1973 | The Painter | Pablo Picasso | Swissair Flight 111 Plane Crash | 1998 | |||
Destroyed | 1995 | The World Trade Center Memorial, 1993 | Elyn Zimmerman | World Trade Center Collapse | 2001 | [72] | ||
Destroyed | 1995 | Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995 ("The Tent") | Tracey Emin | Momart fire | 2004 | |||
Dismantled | 1981 | Tilted Arc | Richard Serra | Dismantled and removed | 1989 | |||
21st century
Status | Creation date(s) (est.) | Known as | Creator | Commission/provenance note | Loss event | Year lost (est.) | Surviving copies and documentation | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dismantled | 2005 | B of the Bang | Thomas Heatherwick | Dismantled and removed; parts remain in storage | 2009 | |||
Destroyed | 25 works of folk art in the Local History Museum of Ivankiv, Kyiv region, Ukraine | Maria Prymachenko | War | 2022 | ||||
List of notable finds
Year found | Year lost (est.) | Creation date(s) (est.) | Known as | Creator | Loss event |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1506 | 27 BC-68 AD | Laocoön and His Sons | Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus | Fall of the Roman Empire, destruction of Emperor Titus' palace | |
1920[76] | 1826 | 13th century | St Mary's Abbey Figurine | N/A | Disappeared; was found in a private art collection in Aachen |
1990 | 1802 | 1602 | The Taking of Christ | Caravaggio | Misattribution by descendants of the original owner, Ciriaco Mattei |
1999 | 1953 | 1950–1953 | Study after Velázquez I | Francis Bacon | Thought destroyed by the artist[70] |
1999 | 1953 | 1950–1953 | Study after Velázquez II | Francis Bacon | Thought destroyed by the artist[70] |
2000 | 1945 | 1862 | Femme nue couchée | Gustave Courbet | Soviet looting of Budapest |
2008 | 1750–1800 | 1595 | Francesco St Jerome | Palma Giovane | Unknown |
2009[77] | 1929 | 1920 | Sleeping Lady with Black Vase | Robert Bereny | Recovered after inadvertently being used as a prop in the film Stuart Little |
2010 | 2000 | 1882 | Beach in Pourville | Monet | National Museum, Poznań theft |
2012 | 1695 | 1634 | Magistrate of Brussels oil sketch | Van Dyck | Overpainting |
2012 | 1922 | 1887 | Third Imperial Egg | Fabergé | Russian Revolution |
2012 | 1945 | N/A | 2012 Munich artworks discovery | N/A | World War II |
2014[78] | 1970 | 1889 | Fruits on a table or still life with a small dog | Gauguin | Terrence Kennedy residence, London, theft |
2016[79] | 2002 | 1882 | Beach at Scheveningen in Stormy Weather | Van Gogh | 2002 Van Gogh Museum theft |
2016[79] | 2002 | 1884 | Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen | Van Gogh | 2002 Van Gogh Museum theft |
2021[80] | 2012 | 1939 | Head of a Woman | Picasso | 2012 Athens National Gallery theft |
2021[80] | 2012 | 1905 | Stammer Windmill | Mondrian | 2012 Athens National Gallery theft |
List of notable disputed finds
Year found | Year lost (est.) | Creation date(s) (est.) | Known as | Creator | Loss event |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014[81] | 1700[82] | 1604-05[81] | Judith Beheading Holofernes | Caravaggio | Unknown |
See also
References
Notes
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- "Stuart Little leads art historian to long-lost Hungarian masterpiece". Guardian. Agence France-Presse in Budapest. 27 November 2014. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
- "Stolen paintings hung on Italian factory worker's wall for almost 40 years". 2 April 2014.
- Kirchgaessner, Stephanie; Darroch, Gordon (2016-09-30). "Italian Camorra inquiry recovers Van Goghs 14 years after infamous heist". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
- Goldstein, Caroline (29 June 2021). "Authorities Have Recovered Picasso and Mondrian Paintings That Were Brazenly Stolen From a Greek Museum Nearly 10 Years Ago". Artnet. Retrieved 12 July 2021.
- Stapley-Brown, Victoria; Guillou, Francine (12 April 2016). "Expert claims painting uncovered in a Toulouse attic is by Caravaggio". The Art Newspaper. Archived from the original on 2016-04-28. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
- Lichfield, John (12 April 2016). "Caravaggio masterpiece worth £100m found in a sealed attic in Toulouse". Independent. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
Books
- Adams, Robert (1980). The Lost Museum: Glimpses of Vanished Originals. Viking Press. ISBN 0-670-44107-4.
- British Committee on the Preservation and Restitution of Works of Art, London (1945). Works of Art in Italy: Losses and Survivals in the War (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-04-07.
- Flick, Gert-Rudolf (2003). Missing Masterpieces: Lost Works of Art, 1450–1900. Merrell. ISBN 1-85894-197-0.
- Gamboni, Dario (1997). The Destruction of Art: Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-86189-316-1.
- Houpt, Simon (2006). Museum of the Missing: The High Stakes of Art Crime. Key Porter Books.
- Lambourne, Nicola (2001). War Damage in Western Europe: The Destruction of Historic Monuments During the Second World War. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0-7486-1285-8.
- LaFarge, Henry Adams, ed. (1946). Lost Treasures of Europe: 427 Photographs. Pantheon.
- Simpson, Elizabeth (1997). The Spoils of War--World War II and Its Aftermath: The Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., and The Bard Graduate Center. ISBN 0-8109-4469-3.
- Stockdale, James (1872). Annales Caermoelenses or Annals of Cartmel. London: Simpkin, Marshall & Company. pp. 425–429. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
Annales Caermoelensis.
- Strong, Roy (1990). Lost Treasures of Britain: Five Centuries of Creation and Destruction. Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-83383-2.
Journals
- Norris, Christopher (December 1952). "The Disaster at Flakturm Friedrichshain: a Chronicle and List of Paintings". The Burlington Magazine. XCIV (597).
News
- Djordjevic, Marija (13 September 2009). "Čileanski muzej krije odgovore". Retrieved 21 October 2013.
- "Replacement of Art in Rio is Uncertain". Reading Eagle. AP. 14 December 1978. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
External links
- Media related to Lost artworks at Wikimedia Commons
- The Story of Leonardo da Vinci's Horse
- 9/11 Attacks Destroy Cultural and Historical Artifacts
- The Britart fire
- Lost Art. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Library Collections. In the Library's Photographs and Clippings Files.
- Lost Art — Masterpieces Destroyed in War in Flickr
- Destroyed Works of Art and Architecture Group in Flickr