The World On Our Fingertips. 21st Century's technology has offered us the power to locate anything and everything. With advanced tracking systems, it is nearly impossible for anything to escape our eyes. But there are things that are lost in the wilderness of our world and we, even with all our technological might were incapable of retracing them. The best thing about these antiques is that some of them are still waiting to be found and would be worth a fortune.
Ark of Covenant was one of the most popular and religious artifacts which are still to be found. The Ark of Covenant is a chest which contained a tablet which had Ten Commandments engraved on it. The chest is touted to have magical powers according to the Hebrew Bible. The Ark of Covenant was never found after the Babylonians vanquished and overtook Jerusalem in 587 B.C.
This room did justice to its name- The Eighth Wonder of the World. The room was built with panels of 1000 pound(450 kg) of amber-gold-gilded mosaics, mirrors, and carvings. During World War II, the panels were taken by Germany and they were never seen again. No one knows whether those panels exist anymore or not, and even if they do their location is a mystery altogether.
Love's Labour's Won is a play that is supposedly written by William Shakespeare and is known to be a sequel to Love's Labour's Lost. However, no copy of this play exists to date. There are several other professors who have a really different opinion on this topic. Professor William Carroll of Boston University claims that the play still exists but we know it by a different name Much Ado About Nothing.
Peter Carl Faberge, a renowned Russian jeweler, during the period of 1885-1916 was known for creating about 50 elaborately decorated Easter Eggs for the Russian imperial family.
During the Russian Revolution, the imperial family was overthrown and these eggs vanished and since that day, no one has ever seen those ornamental eggs.
This sword would be no less than Valayrian Steel if they existed in the Game Of Thrones era. This sword was known for its build quality and no other sword of that era could compete with it.
The sword was turned over to America after World War II as it was considered a weapon and that too dangerous one. But since that day no one has ever seen this sword and no one has any clue about its whereabouts.
The smallest of the three pyramids that are in Giza, belongs to an Egyptian Pharoah Menkaure. Around 4500 years after its construction, a British explorer, Howard Vyse thought of diving inside and finding its riches. He found in it a detailed Sarcophagus of the pharaoh that the pyramid belonged to.
He thought of sending this invaluable sarcophagus to the British Museum in London and loaded it on a ship. But that ship never reached its destination, and instead, it sank during the voyage and took that sarcophagus with it.
Sappho was considered as one of the best Greek poets. During the 7th century, she was very popular.
The major problem that we face today is that most of her poems have been lost and there exist only a few of her poems that were found really later and were sold to The Oxford University for a fortune.
The first Homo erectus fossil that was found by the archaeologists was named as 'Peking Man'. It was located in Beijing, China in 1923.
When Japan invaded China in 1941, many other fossils along with the Peking Man were either lost or stolen and to date, many of those discoveries are still lost and some people believe that it may still be hidden in China but no one has a proof of this statement.
The Library of Moscow Tsars constructed in the 16th century is touted to contain several Greek texts which date back to ancient times and this library was constructed to preserve these ancient texts.
Ivan the IV, popularly known as Ivan the terrible hid the library's text and there have been many archaeologists and searchers who have tried to find these texts, but no one has faced any luck until now.
In 1505, famed artist Leonardo Da Vinci painted a mural which depicted The Battle of Anghiari which was fought between the Milan and the Florence led Italian League.
This mural was last seen in 1563 when it was taken down from the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, for the building renovations. Many experts state that some other artist named Giorgio Vasari painted a mural upon Leonardo's work, but again no proof has been found of the same.
According to the stories that surrounded the end of World War II, beneath the Lake Toplitz in Austria might lie a treasure that is worth a fortune. A force of Nazi soldiers led by a Schutzstaffel officer, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, emptied trunks full of gold in the aforestated lake.
Many people have tried to find the treasure but no one has faced any success due to the fact that there are a number of logs and vegetation in the lake which made the visibility for searchers very poor.
From 66 AD to 74 AD many Jewish rebels were fighting for their freedom. During 70 AD, the Romans invaded the city of Jerusalem and captured it. One of the most sacred places for the people of Jerusalem was The Second Temple. The temple was raided during the invasion and the Roman troops took the temple's menorah which was considered as one of the most sacred things in the temple.
According to historians, there are proofs of Romans taking the Menorah which was of the size of humans. But since then nobody has ever seen it. The legend has it, that the menorah is still hidden in the city of Rome.
Amongst all the dead scrolls that were discovered the most famous is the Copper Scroll upon which is engraved the location of a treasure that is supposed to be full of riches and invaluable items. The Scroll is displayed in a museum in Jordan, but the thing that is yet to be found remains the treasure whose location is engraved on the scroll. Many scholars believe that the treasure mentioned in the scroll is fictional and not real.
Don't you get fooled by the name of this jewelry!
This was not a crown but instead, these were a collection of a lot of jewels that consisted of a diamond brooch and various other priceless items like gemstones that belonged to Queen's Charlotte personal jewelry, stones from the Order of the Bath Badge, and precious gems from the Mughal Empire and the Sultan of Turkey. These jewels were stolen in 1907 and we still don't know where these jewels reside.
The Hapsburg family of Austria possessed a 133-carat rare pink gemstone, a Florentine Diamond. At the end of World War I, the royal family was overthrown and with the intention of keeping the diamond safe, the family trusted its lawyer to keep it a safety deposit box at a Swiss Bank.
The family had in mind a plan to sell the diamond and reap a huge amount of profit but their lawyer was found guilty of fraud and theft, but before that, the diamond was long gone. People believe that it was divided into smaller pieces, but no proof for the same exists.
The Just Judges is one of the panels of a very large altarpiece, the Ghent Altarpiece and was painted by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, who were brothers around the 15th century. The Just Judges panel has been missing since its theft in 1934 and no one has any clue about its whereabouts.
You might think that the first person to reach the summit of Everest is Edmund Hillary. But what if I say that you might be wrong. What if I say there might be a chance that two people did this before Edmund Hillary?
George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared while they were attempting to summit Mount Everest. A storm came when they were almost near the top and after that, no one knows whether they reached the top or not. Mallory body was discovered but Irvine's body still remains missing along with Mallory's camera which could give us the proof that whether they reached the top or not.
São Vicente started its voyage from Lisbon to Avignon which was carrying a treasure that belonged to a deceased Bishop Thibaud de Castillon. However, before it could reach its destination the ship was attacked two pirate ships and the treasure was all stolen. One of the ships which were captained by Antonio Botafoc was captured, but no one had any idea what happened to the other ship which was commanded by Martin Yanes or its crew or the treasure.
No one had any idea when two men dressed as police officers entered the Isabella Gardner Museum on March 18, 1990, that it is gonna witness one of the greatest heists anyone could ever pull off.
That day 13 works of art were stolen from the museum and nobody knows as to where did those artworks land and their current whereabouts.
Q-Source is a biblical and hypothetical text that is supposed to be originated in the first century. According to the scholars who believe in its existence, the Q-source helped the writers to pen down the gospels of Matthew and Luke. The main thing which is a problem in today's time is that no copy of the Q-source survives to verify the fact that it ever existed.
Raphael Sanzio was an Italian Painter who lived from 1483 A.D. - 1520 A.D. and was commonly known as Raphael. He painted a "portrait of a young man" on an oil canvas. No one knows the person who is depicted in that painting. In 1939 when Poland was invaded by the Germans, Nazi officials stole the painting. The painting had its last spectators in 1945 and since then no one knows its location.
The Royal Casket was created by Princess Izabela Czartoryska in 1800 and it contained artifacts from the royal families that ruled Poland. It contained jewelry of the kings, mementos, gold, and other work of art. The Royal Casket was also taken away by the German Army when the invaded Poland.
Since that day, people have tried locating the casket and find the riches which it contained but no was able to locate its contents.
According to some of the scholars, the oldest surviving copies of the Christian Gospels that date back to the second century A.D were actually written in the second half of the first century. These claims have raised many questions as to whether any gospels from the first century exists?
This case has seen some progress as scholars claimed that they found a fragment of the Gospel of Mark that dates back to the first century. However, the text that the researchers claim to have found is yet to be published.
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist who lived from A.D. 1571 to 1610 A.D. In 1609, the famed painter created a painting known as "Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence". The painting depicts the birth of Jesus, while he is lying on the haystack. The painting resided in a chapel in Palermo, in Italy till 1969, from where it was stolen and to date no one knows its location.
Jules Rimet was the founder of World Cup tournament and a trophy was named on him- The Jules Rimet Cup was the World Cup trophy in the beginning and the team winning it three times would be given permanent possession of the cup. The trophy was "a depiction of the goddess of victory holding an octagonal vessel above her head, produced in gold with a base of semi-precious stones," FIFA claims.
In 1983, the Jules Rimet Cup was stolen from Rio de Janeiro and nobody has seen it since and it is believed that the cup might have been melted down by the thieves.
Nimrud is a city in modern-day Iraq and is said to be the capital city during the Assyrian empire. A new palace was built during this time in Nimrud. In June 2014the city was invaded by a terrorist group that goes by the name of 'the Islamic State' or commonly known as ISIS and since then many riches have been looted from Nimrud which sometimes pop up on the black market.
Francisco Pancho Villa was a General who fought against Mexico's leaders in a series of battles. Villa entered into a contract with the Mutual Film Corporation that gave permissions to the filmmakers to capture him on camera and his real-life battles. The Life of General Villa is a movie that depicts the same. The movie was released and was available for everybody to watch but the movie is lost now and no one has any idea about the movie.
The Greeks were majorly known for their innovations and findings and they proved their mettle in wars. They found "Greek Fire" whose secret ingredient is yet to be found was a flaming substance that was fired from the Byzantine Empire. The fire would cling to the flesh and it would be impossible to extinguish it with water. No one has ever come across the secret ingredient used in making the Greek Fire.
In 1956, two men while carving out a limestone in Germany when they came across a fossil that they could not identify and they took it to their owner, who further lent it to a geologist who confirmed that it was a fossil of an Archaeopteryx and it was a remarkable discovery as it was only third of its kind.
The owner thought of selling the fossil and making a huge profit, but when he received huge offers he declined, stating that he did not want to pay the tax and therefore it was never sold and no one knows where it is since the owner died.
You're mistaken if you think that Lincoln's greatest speech started with "Four Score and Seven Years".
The greatest of the speech that Lincoln's delivered has no records since no reporter took notes of the same and we are not able to listen or even read one of the best speech that was delivered by Lincoln.
Vincent Van Gogh painted a picture of red and yellow poppies in 1887. This picture is hugely known for getting stolen. This painting has been stolen twice. The first time in 1977, when it was robbed from a museum in Giza, Egypt and was recovered 10 years later. However, the second theft took place in 2010 and no clue has been found about the thief or its location.
The Scepter of Dagobert was regarded as a piece of the French Crown Jewel. The scepter is 22 inches of gold which was made for Dagobert I, king of Neustria, Austrasia and the Franks in the 7th century. This scepter was stolen in 1795 and is missing to date. It is missing for the past 224 years and there is no clue about its whereabouts.
It was named after the explorer who discovered it, Teddy Tucker. The Tucker Cross is an emerald decorated 22 karat gold cross. The cross resided with the Bermudan Government since 1959 and was displayed in a local museum. Just before the visit from Queen Elizabeth II in 1975, the cross was robbed from the museum and it was replaced with a fake one.
The most interesting fact about this treasure is that it is still up for grab.
Forest Fenn was an art dealer who was diagnosed with cancer and knowing the fact that he won't be able to take his riches with him, he took some of it and hid so that it would benefit the ones who found it.
In 2010, Fenn buried almost a million dollar's worth of things in the Rocky Mountain. Although 4 people have died trying to find the treasure, the owner insisted that they were very close to finding the treasure.
In the 18th century, there was a pirate named Amaro Rodríguez Felipe y Tejera Machado popularly known as Amaro Pargo who in his will declared a treasure that he hid. According to his will, the treasure contains jewelry, precious stones, pearls, gold, silver, painting, fabric, and Chinese porcelain. But the location of the treasure remains a mystery.
On 20th November 1511, Flor do Mar, a Portuguese ship which disappeared while it was claimed that it was carrying a treasure after a Malaysian conquest. The nobleman who was said to collect the treasure was thankfully saved but all the treasure that the ship was carrying sank on the coast of Sumatra and has not been seen by anyone to date.
The Museum of Civilization is the country's largest museum. In 2011, the museum witnessed one of the grandest and the most shocking heist to date. The thieves took an approximate of 80 items including royal jewelry, tribal masks, religious artifacts, and gold. Many agencies are involved in finding the robbed items but no one has had any luck.
Tomb of Tu Duc is located in Hue, Vietnam which is one of the most popular tourist places in Vietnam. People come and visit the tomb, but the place where the Nguyen leader was buried is not found. He was buried along with his treasure in a secret location and any person who was involved in its creation was beheaded.
According to the tales and stories that surround Victorio Peak in southern New Mexico, there lies a treasure. Victorio Peak in the San Andres Mountains is touted to contain huge amounts of Gold. There have been bodies found in the peak but the treasure is yet to be discovered.
Heirloom Seal of the realm is the most popular in China. Carved from the He Shi Bi, a very famous jade. The seal is about 2239 years old now and it has been almost 1000 years since it was last seen. This seal was passed down from emperor to emperor and somewhere between 907 and 960 AD, it went missing and no one knows its location to date.
Awa Maru was a Japanese ocean liner and it was sailing under the protection of the Red Cross as it was being used as a hospital ship. The ship set sail from Singapore on 28 March 1945. But on April 1, an American submarine mistook her for a destroyer and the Awa Maru was torpedoed.
But the interesting part is that the Awa Maru was supposedly carrying a treasure which was in excess of $5 million dollars in gold bullions and goods and the treasure is still not found.
In February 2003, Antwerp in Belgium saw one of the greatest and the grandest diamond heist of all time. The vault that was robbed contained various priceless items like jewelry, diamonds, and gold that was almost worth $100 million. There have been many speculations regarding who the robbers were, but there has been no progress in the case to date.
During the mid 19th century, the people of Los Angeles had a habit of hiding their valuable items in the park for their safety. This was further proved when in 1944 a group of researchers found that there may be tunnels beneath the Elysian Park and the tunnel contained a lot of metal that maybe jewelry or even the gold and silver coins.
In Shaanxi province of China lies the Tomb of Qin Shi Huang which is a 2226-year old mausoleum. The exact location of the tomb remains known to many and almost all, but the tomb is not excavated yet and the treasure that was buried with Qin Shi Huang remains up for grab.
Dutch Schultz a Jewish American mobster who buried the looted riches he had collected over the years just to avoid any charges and his enemies. It is known that Schultz got an airtight, waterproof safe and hid in it $7 million in cash, gold, and bonds in upstate New York. The treasure hasn't been found yet and still treasure hunters are in search of the treasure.
In Colorado’s Black Canyon lies a treasure full of riches that are still waiting to be found. In 1907, a wagon was touted to be carrying barber dimes that were supposed to be of $3 million dollars. With the passing time, there have been many attempts to find the treasure but no one has found it to date.
Esperanza was a Peruvian ship, which was heading towards the West Indies in 1816 when it sank. One of the survivors of the ship confirmed the fact that the ship was carrying millions in gold, silver, and pesos. There have been multiple attempts of locating and finding the treasure, but no one had any success.
Michaelangelo was a popular Italian artist who was known and highly criticized for painting a sensual scene from ancient mythology. It depicted the story of the god Jupiter who seduces Leda, the queen of Sparta by turning himself into a swan.
Many people believed that the painting was intentionally destroyed and some believe that it is lost somewhere, still to be found.
The Story of the Kelly Gang was the first feature-length movie which was filmed in 1906 which narrates the story of Ned Kelly and his gang of bandits. The movie was a huge success. However, the movie had to be banned due to the increase in the crime rate in Melbourne as it instilled the criminal behavior amongst the masses.
Famed Italian artist Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni carved out of marble a "Mask of a Faun". Faun is supposed to be a half human, half goat and it is a mythological creature. The soldiers of the German Army stole it from Bargello Museum in Florence and since then no one knows its whereabouts.