The idea of discovering a buried treasure is appealing to just about everyone. Who wouldn’t want to just dig down somewhere and find an ancient trove of gold and jewels? You’d be instantly rich.  For a very long time, this was how the world at large viewed the situation. If it’s buried underground no one really owns it, right? But that’s not really how things work. In many cases, these ancient relics that are being dug up belong to the government of the country from which they’ve been taken. The country of Egypt is perhaps most famous for suffering this fate as tomb raiders for decades now have pillaged the country of its ancient history. But they aren’t the only ones. There are many cases of ancient relics that have been purloined over the years.

10. Pompeii’s Curse

Not every ancient relic is stolen by an Indiana Jones-style archaeologist or roving gangs of miscreants. Just look at the Canadian woman identified only as Nicole. 15 years ago she visited Pompeii. At the site, famous for being destroyed by a nearby volcano in a way that nearly perfectly preserved the entire town, Nicole snatched a few mosaic tiles and pottery shards for her own personal collection. This was very much against the law, but she felt like she wanted some souvenirs from the ancient city.

Fast forward to the year 2020 and Nicole put the items in an envelope and mailed them back to the Italian government. The envelope had a Canadian stamp but no return address. There was also a note inside apologizing for being young and dumb. She also pointed out the relics which supposedly caused her 15 years of bad luck.

Nicole attributed her theft of the relics to a series of unfortunate events that plagued her and her family. From financial woes to being diagnosed with breast cancer not once but twice she felt that Pompeii had cursed her for taking the items.  All of this was detailed in the note that she included when she sent the package back to Italy. Ironically, this is not the first package the Italian government has received from someone who took items from Pompeii, nor is it the first time someone sent them back after claiming they felt they were cursed. This has apparently happened hundreds of times already and will likely continue.

9. The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is so famous that there’s a piece of software named after it. Arguably one of the most famous exhibits in the British Museum, it was key in helping researchers learn how to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Because the stone features the same decree written in three different styles of writing including hieroglyphs, ancient Greek, and demotic which was the native language of the Egyptian people, it serves as a blueprint for translating ancient languages.

The stone was discovered in 1799. Napoleon had been campaigning through Egypt at the time, the stone fell into British control after Napoleon’s defeat in 1801. Much of the ancient items the French had unearthed were taken by the British as part of the Treaty of Alexandria. By 1802 the stone was in England.

From here the story typically goes on to detail the historical significance of the stone and how it was translated, how it was used to understand ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and how it essentially opened up Egyptology as a section of archaeology. What is most often overlooked is the fact that this was stolen from Egypt. It’s still in the British Museum and it still stands as one of the most important historical finds of all time.

Egypt has called on England to return the Rosetta Stone numerous times over the years however, it seems unlikely at this point that England will ever concede that it was stolen in the first place and give it back. But at least one archaeologist working in a museum in Egypt says that there is still an upside to an item of such historical significance being on display outside of Egypt. It’s good propaganda for Egypt and a good advertisement to get people who are interested in the subject to actually visit the country and see more of the history firsthand.

8. The Elgin Marbles

The British Museum in London houses many Greek sculptures better known as the Elgin Marbles.  These date back to the 5th century and many of them were removed from the Parthenon at Athens before being shipped to England sometime between 1799 and 1803. Thomas Bruce, the 7th Lord Elgin, was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during that time and that is who was occupying Greece from 1458 until the 1820s.

Greece understandably considers these artworks to be stolen property. They actually have a space open for them in the Acropolis Museum in Athens where the rest of the collection is housed. The British Museum, on the other hand, feels that nothing was stolen and the artwork was legally obtained by Lord Elgin back in the day after he agreed with the leaders of the Ottoman Empire.

 Because each side believes they own the art, there doesn’t seem to be much headway in getting them situated.  Greece does seem to have the moral high ground here since it was not any kind of Greek official who would have permitted Lord Elgin to have the art in the first place, but the British Museum doesn’t see it that way. 

7. The Bust of Nefertiti

Nefertiti was an Egyptian queen and the Great Royal wife of the Pharaoh Akhenaten. She lived from 1370 to 1330 BC. The two of them oversaw a religious shift in the country that dropped for the pantheon of multiple gods and saw the people begin to worship one single God, Aten.  It was a period of great wealth and prosperity in Egypt and it’s also believed that Nefertiti herself ruled Egypt after her husband’s death.

The bust of Nefertiti was discovered in 1912 by German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt.  Unlike some ancient relics which were taken with misplaced authority, Borchardt knew he didn’t have the right to the bust but he stole it anyway, smuggling it out of the country in 1913.

The German government claims that the bust was not taken illegally and it was part of Borchardt’s share of what he found. Egypt has long disagreed and has wanted it back since the 1920s but has so far been unsuccessful. As recently as September of 2020 Egypt has tried to get Germany to return the bust. The country agreed to return several other artifacts, but not Nefertiti.

6. Great Zimbabwe Bird

Although geographically Zimbabwe has existed for a long time, by that name the country has only existed since 1980. Previously it was known as the country of Rhodesia, named for Cecil Rhodes who claimed the country under Imperial Rule and was responsible for colonialism in Zimbabwe.

When Zimbabwe was able to achieve independence once again the country made a special point of tracking down the Great Zimbabwe Birds. There were eight of these soapstone statues originally which come from the ruined city of Great Zimbabwe. Built by the ancestors of the Shona sometime in the 11th century, the massive city covered 1,800 acres.   Among the ruins were eight soapstone sculptures of birds. The birds themselves are about 16 inches in height and they were mounted on columns that were three feet tall.

The birds are only partially designed to look like birds. They feature some human attributes, one of them even has lips. They have human appendages and their exact purpose has never fully been determined. They may represent Kings of old or totemic animals. Regardless of their past meaning, they are unique to Zimbabwe. No one has ever found anything like them anywhere else. And for that reason, they were adopted as national symbols of Zimbabwe and are even featured on its flag. 

Unfortunately, only two of them remained in Zimbabwe. After Cecil Rhodes and others took over the country, many of the birds were displaced. Four of them ended up in South Africa and another was taken there by Cecil Rhodes himself to Cape Town. 

When Zimbabwe achieved independence,  South Africa returned the four birds that it had. In 2003, Germany returned a piece of one that they had. And as of 2020, there was only one bird at large. It was still housed in South Africa. The one from the private collection of Cecil Rhodes. After Rhodes’ death, he bequeathed his estates to the South African government. Today it’s a museum and it still houses the last bird. As to why the South African government has refused to return this final bird? No one knows.

5. Geronimo’s Skull

Geronimo was a famous Apache medicine man. He had a knack for military strategy and frequently led raids against Mexican and American forces in the late 1800s. After he was captured, Geronimo was held as a prisoner of war and he died in the year 1909 after more than 20 years in Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Geronimo’s story should have ended there, but it did not. There’s long been a rumor that members of the Skull and Bones Society were stationed at Fort Sill. The Order of Skull and Bones is one of those secret societies that is associated with Yale University. According to the story, Skull and Bones members dug up Geronimo’s grave and stole his skull and some personal artifacts. They took these remains to New Haven, Connecticut and they were stored in the Skull and Bones Society Clubhouse in secret.

Members of the Skull and Bones Society take their secrecy pretty seriously. That said, a writer claims to have found a letter dating from 1918 that confirmed the theft of the bones and their being stashed somewhere inside the Skull and Bones Society tomb.

Descendants of Geronimo filed a lawsuit against the society as well as Yale University and members of the United States government including Barack Obama. They demanded the return of Geronimo’s remains as the man himself wanted to be buried on Apache lands in New Mexico.

 To this day there is probably far too much mystery around Geronimo’s remains to ever know for sure what happened to him. At least one native rights organization says that Geronimo’s remains have already returned to New Mexico. And of course, the Skull and Bones society would never admit that they had it even if they did. 

4. Priam’s Treasure

Few countries have suffered more from robbers and plunderers than Turkey. It’s been estimated that over 200,000 items have been stolen from dig sites in Turkey and made their way to various museums throughout Europe including prominent ones such as the Louvre in Paris as well as the Pergamon Museum in Berlin and the British Museum in London.

Because so many different cultures over the years had established civilizations in Turkey, you can find artifacts from the Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans, Hittites, Phrygians, and so on. This led to competing archaeologists from different countries essentially raiding the country to get as much as they could for their own museums.

Among the many relics that have gone missing over the years are the treasures of King Priam. This consisted of a large quantity of gold, copper, and other artifacts that were discovered by German archaeologists. Arguably the most famous piece is the gold diadems and assorted pieces known as the Jewels of Helen which consists of 8,750 gold rings, buttons, and other objects. The treasure was discovered in 1873 at the site of the ancient city of Troy. It was then smuggled into Berlin and now exists in Moscow’s Pushkin Museum where it has been on display since the Soviet troops stole it from the Germans in 1945.

Ironically, Germany has demanded the treasure back from Russia claiming they own it. But of course, Turkey is claiming the same thing since Germany stole it from them to begin with. The Russian government claims that is war reparations and that they earned it.

3. Sarah Baartman

Most of the ancient relics that have been stolen over the years have been just that, relics. But one of the saddest and most unusual cases of an ancient artifact being stolen relates to the tale of Sarah Baartman. 

Sarah Baartman was thought to have been born in South Africa back in 1789. She had been a servant in Cape Town when she signed a contract with an English ship surgeon named William Dunlop. Baartman was illiterate and likely had no idea what she was signing at the time. The contract stated that she would travel with them to England and take part in shows. Whether she realized it or not, she had just signed up to be part of a freak show.

Put on display as the Hottentot Venus,  Baartman had a condition known as steatopygia. The condition is characterized by a prominent buildup of fat in the buttocks. So, this woman was paraded around Europe as some kind of trophy that the colonists had brought back with them. It was a cruel mix of racism and exploitation and after she died, her skeleton, her brain, and even her sexual organs were on display in a Paris Museum. 

Although the British Empire had supposedly abolished the slave trade in the early 1800s, slavery itself was not something that had stopped. The people who employed Sarah Baartman were prosecuted for holding her against her will but they were not convicted. She had actually testified on their behalf. To this day no one knows for sure whether she was fully aware of her situation or not. Regardless, she died at the age of 26 from what was described as an inflammatory and eruptive disease. 

Fortunately, this story has a bit of a happier ending than some of the others. In 1994 Nelson Mandela requested the repatriation of Sarah Baartman’s remains. They were returned, along with a plaster cast that has been made of her body. In 2002 she was buried back home in South Africa.

2. The Mummy of Ramses I

Identifying ancient relics can be difficult sometimes. Especially in the case of ancient Egyptian mummies.  Identifying who is who is not always easy and occasionally leads to surprises. Such was the case when researchers in Niagara Falls discovered that they had the body of Ramses I. Not only that, he’d been sitting there since the 1860s until he was finally identified in 1999.

Ramses I was an Egyptian pharaoh and a fairly significant member of the royal line. A Canadian researcher just happened to notice that the mummy looked kind of familiar. The facial structure reminded her of some other royal mummies so they did some tests and, sure enough, he turned out to be the Pharaoh.

The Mummy had been purchased by the son of the museum’s founder when he had gone to Egypt in the early 1800s to pick up antiquities. No one involved had any idea who he was at first. Once the Canadians discovered that he was the Pharaoh, the process of having him repatriated began. Currently, the Pharaoh is back on display in the Luxor Museum in Egypt. 

1. Koh-i-Noor Diamond

One of the most famous diamonds in the world is set into the crown of Queen Elizabeth. The Koh-i-Noor diamond hails from India and became part of the British crown jewels in the mid-1880s. 

Before the 1700s, pretty much every diamond in the world came from India. Gemstones were abundant in India so much so that you could fish them out of river sand rather than go digging for them in mines. 

The first written record of the Koh-i-Noor diamond comes from 1628. Mughal ruler Shah Jahan made himself a jewel-encrusted throne inspired by King Solomon’s from the Bible. After 7 years of construction and four times as much money as was put into the Taj Mahal, there were two giant gems set into it. The Timur Ruby and the Koh-i-Noor diamond. The diamond was the crown of the throne in the head of a giant gemstone peacock.

In 1739, Nader Shah invaded Delhi and stole the Peacock Throne along with so much treasure it took 700 elephants, 4,000  camels, and 12,000 horses to take it all the way.  For the next 70 years, the diamond made its home in Afghanistan where it changed hands frequently thanks to various battles. By 1813 it was back in India again in the hands of Ranjit Singh, a Sikh ruler.

After Singh’s death, control of the diamond passed through several hands until it ended up in the control of Duleep Singh. British colonists had already taken a firm hold in India and had set their sights on the diamond years earlier. In Duleep, they saw a chance to get what they coveted so dearly and forced him to sign the diamond over along with all claims to sovereignty in an amendment to the Treaty of Lahore. How’d they do that? Duleep Singh was only 10 years old.

The diamond was sent to England and became the property of the Queen, after which it was added to the crown jewels. Locals were unimpressed because it looked like a glass bauble. So Prince Albert had it recut to look more brilliant, reducing it in size by half in the process.

Theft in itself isn’t that bizarre or mysterious. Thieves steal things like jewelry, cars, gadgets, and other material objects all the time, mostly because they want to have them without earning or paying for them. It gets baffling, however, when the stolen item in question falls outside the established norms of what can or can’t be stolen. Thieves around the world have taken to stealing all kinds of things you didn’t know could be stolen – from sharks to glaciers to manhole covers. 

10. Manhole Covers

In 2008, nearly 50 cast-iron manhole covers – each weighing around 150 pounds – were stolen from roadways and alleys in the Long Beach area of California, all within a span of just eight months. The frequency of the thefts only increased over time, as the covers were disappearing at a higher rate every week. While the stolen covers were promptly reported and replaced, they still cost the city around $500 per replacement. 

It might sound like a specific, unlikely crime, though theft of manhole covers has been a rising problem the world over in the past few years, particularly in developing nations like China. The soaring price of metal is contributing to an epidemic of these cases, as these covers could be melted down and sold as scrap at ever-increasing prices. Various cities have implemented their own measures to prevent it, like bolting covers, special locks, and plastic covers.

9. A Train Engine

Some time in 2022, an entire diesel train engine was disassembled piece-by-piece and stolen from a yard in India’s Begusarai district. The thieves gained access to the area via a tunnel they dug themselves, and the incident only came to light when a case was registered at a nearby police station. 

As the investigation progressed, three individuals were arrested after the authorities raided a scrap godown in another district called Muzaffarpur. During the search, they discovered 13 sacks filled with stolen train parts, including engine components, vintage engine wheels, and heavy-iron railway parts. According to local reports from that time, the police were still on the lookout for the owner of the godown.

8. George Washington’s Wallet

George Washington’s wallet, on loan to the Old Barracks Museum in New Jersey, was stolen from the museum in early 1992. It went missing for almost three weeks before it was found, only with two bills worth $1.66 in colonial currency missing from it. In a curious twist, it was returned by one Eric Davis, working as a lawyer for an unknown, anonymous client. 

The return was made on George Wasington’s birthday, and a $500 reward was offered and paid to the returner. According to Davis, it had been quite easy to steal, too, as his anonymous client just had to lift the protective glass holding the wallet to take it.

7. A Bridge

Ever look at a bridge and feel like stealing it? While we don’t advise it, it can be done, as proven by a group of men that did exactly that in India in April 2022. The gang, including government workers from the local irrigation department, worked for three days and dismantled an old 60-foot long, 550-ton iron bridge. Disguised in government uniforms, they used gas-cutting torches and earth excavators to remove all the individual parts, and proceed to transport it to a local scrap dealer’s warehouse. 

The local villagers were mostly unaware of the theft, and initially thought that the government was finally doing something about the dilapidated infrastructure in the area. However, they were sorely mistaken, and the theft went unnoticed until one of them contacted the officials. Eight people, including the government workers and one scrapyard owner, were arrested in connection with the incident. 

6. A Glacier

In 2012, a man was arrested in Chile for stealing and smuggling about five tons of ice from the Jorge Montt glacier in the Patagonia region. The truck was intercepted by local police, and the total value of the ice was estimated around $6,100. It’s believed to have been destined for Santiago, as gourmet polar-ice cubes fetch high prices at the upscale bars and restaurants scattered across the capital. 

The theft of glacial ice has captured popular attention in Chile in recent years, as it’s an increasingly valuable commodity in the regions bordering Patagonia. The Jorge Montt glacier located in the Bernardo O’Higgins national park, for example, is retreating by more than half a mile every year. 

5. Napoleon’s Penis

After Napoleon Bonaparte died in 1821, there were many speculations around what happened to his various body parts. One particular area of interest was his penis. According to some accounts, his doctor or his priest was responsible for removing it during the autopsy. It was allegedly then stolen by Napoleon’s chaplain, who smuggled it from St. Helena all the way to his home in Corsica. It remained under the protection of his family until 1916, before it was sold to a bookselling company based in London.

The organ was later shown to the public in 1927 at the Museum of French Art, New York. It drew mixed reactions from the crowd, including a bit of pointing and laughing, though that was more likely because of its decaying leather-like appearance than anything else. 

4. A Human Toe

In June 2017, the town of Dawson City in Yukon, Canada, was struck by a peculiar crime. Someone had stolen a severed toe from the prized collection of the Downtown Hotel, and it wasn’t just any toe, either. It was one of the ingredients used to make the hotel’s signature drink, the Sourtoe Cocktail, which – at least according to the reports – was loved by most of its patrons. 

The tradition goes back to the 1920s, when a rum runner preserved his amputated big toe in alcohol. It was found by a native about fifty years later, frozen in snow and clearly waiting to be put inside a drink, and it had been in use by the hotel ever since. 

Thankfully, the stolen artifact – if it can be called that – was mailed to the authorities within the next few days. It arrived with a note of apology, though the thief was never identified.

3. Einstein’s Brain

Albert Einstein, one of the most renowned scientists in history, died on April 18, 1955. His autopsy was done by a pathologist named Thomas Harvey, though he took it a step further and decided to remove Einstein’s brain, leading to him getting fired from Princeton hospital. Regardless, he obtained permission from Einstein’s son to study it, though not before he had already cut it into 240 pieces. 

By studying Einstein’s brain, Harvey had hoped to gain some insights into his extraordinary intellectual abilities, even if this didn’t sit too well with the rest of the medical community, as removing an organ from a dead body violated medical ethics and patient rights. The brain remained in his sole possession until 1978, when it was revealed to the public and the larger scientific community for the first time.

2. A Beach

In 2008, thieves in Jamaica stole hundreds of tons of valuable white sand – or an entire beach – from a planned resort on the island’s north coast. The case – leading to a loss of more than a million dollars to the owner – is only one of the many incidents of beach theft cropping up around the world. They’re largely thanks to a growing shortage of sand, as it’s a crucial ingredient in various large-scale, global industries, leading to theft, smuggling, and even violence due to the illegal sand trade. 

Still, the scale of the theft – to the tune of about 500 truck-loads of sand – baffled the authorities, and also sparked a political controversy of sorts. According to some, the crime was organized by rival hotel owners, as it appeared to be highly organized in nature. 

In response, the government suspended all operations at the planned resort and conducted an environmental study to further analyze the impact of missing sand on nearby ecosystems. Despite testing other beaches and other attempts at tracing the stolen sand, it was never found, and no arrests were made.

1. A Shark

In perhaps one of the most audacious attempts at marine theft in history, an entire shark was stolen from the San Antonio Aquarium in Texas back in July 2018. It was fully captured by surveillance, as the footage showed one of three suspects reaching into the tank and removing the two-feet long gray horn shark. After mixing a bleach solution into the aquarium’s water-filtration system, the thieves used a stroller to take the shark to their car outside. 

Sadly, at least for them, this plan had too many loopholes to succeed, as a manager noticed them leaving the aquarium and followed them to their car. The authorities tracked the suspects down to a house filled with sharks and marine animals in a small pool.

One suspect confessed to the crime, and one of their neighbors admitted to assisting them. The stolen shark, named Miss Helen, was safely returned to the aquarium the next day.

The British Empire was easily the largest empire in human history, encompassing about one fourth of the world’s total land area and population at the peak of its power. Throughout that time, numerous priceless cultural artifacts from around the world were seized and taken back to be displayed in British museums or sold to private collectors, where they remain to this day.

10. Gweagal Shield

The Gweagal shield is a traditional shield made by the aboriginal Gweagal people of Australia. It’s believed to have been used in ceremonial and defensive contexts, before it was captured from a native fighter during James Cook’s 1770 expedition to Australia’s southeastern coast. According to some accounts of the encounter, a group of Gweagal warriors were confronted and defeated by Cook’s landing party on the beach. Other reports, however, claim that Cook ordered his men to open fire after they were attacked, forcing them to retaliate.

Whatever might have happened that day, the shield – along with spears and a few other items – was seized by Cook and brought back to England. It’s still held in the British Museum’s collection in London, along with several other objects stolen by Cook and his men from indigenous Australians during their early voyages to the continent.

9. Benin Bronzes

Before the British expedition to Benin in West Africa in 1897, it was one of the oldest and most developed regions in the world. The capital, Benin City, is said to have been larger and better-built than most European cities of the time, with city walls four times longer than even the Great Wall of China. The empire was particularly known for its sophisticated art, including the famous Benin bronzes – a collection of thousands of works of art made using the lost-wax casting technique. It’s estimated that there were around 4,000 of these objects made by skilled craftsmen from across the region, including sculptures, plaques, and other decorative items.

Sadly, all that would come to an abrupt end In February, 1897, when the city was invaded and sacked by a 1,200-strong British force commanded by Sir Henry Rawson. It was a brutal, punitive campaign, resulting in the looting of almost all of the royal palace’s priceless artifacts, including the bronzes. They were taken back to Britain and sold to museums and collectors around the world, with most of them now residing in private and state collections in Europe.

8. Moai

The Moai statues are monolithic sculptures made by natives of Easter Island – a Chilean territory located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Sculpted with compressed lava ash, these pieces are believed to represent deceased ancestors and occupy an important place in the culture of the Rapa Nui people.

One of the most famous of these statues is the Hoa Hakananai’a, which translates to ‘the stolen or hidden friend’. Measuring almost 2.5 meters – or 8 feet – in height and about four tons in weight, it was taken by the British navy and brought to the British Museum in London during an 1868 campaign, where it remains until today. Despite being on display in London for over 150 years, the Hoa Hakananai’a remains an irreplaceable artifact in Rapa Nui culture. 

7. Hevea Brasiliensis Seeds

This one is mixing things up a little bit, because we’re not talking about a specific artifact. We are, however, talking about taking away something monumentally important to another part of the world. You see, demand for rubber was rapidly increasing around the world in the late 1800s, especially in Europe and the United States, where it was used to manufacture tires, clothing, and various other products. The rubber industry in Brazil and the larger Amazon region was booming, as the government strictly controlled the trade and prohibited the export of the rubber-producing Hevea Brasiliensis seeds out of the region. 

In 1876, an explorer and naturalist named Henry Wickham was hired by the British government to do something about it. After months of preparation and backdoor deals with local tribes, Wickham managed to smuggle about 70,000 rubber tree seeds out of Brazil and back to England. It was a turning point in the history of the global rubber trade, as it allowed British planters and traders to plant the seeds in colonies like Ceylon and Malaysia. By 1913, Britain would overtake Brazil as the primary exporter of rubber around the world.

6. Parthenon Marbles

Parthenon Marbles – also called Ergin Marbles – are a collection of sculptures and architectural features that once adorned the Parthenon – a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena in Athens, Greece. Made some time in the 5th century BC with Pentelic marble and limestone, the artifacts depict various scenes from Greek mythology, including battles, religious ceremonies, and the birth of Athena.

The marbles were originally owned by the city of Athens, though in 1801, Lord Elgin, a British diplomat, received permission from the ruling Ottoman Empire to remove and ship them to England. They were then purchased by the British government, and are now on display in the British Museum. That’s despite several calls by the Greek government to return them, as they were allegedly taken from Athens without their consent, while the British Museum maintains that they’re part of their collection and are better preserved in London.

5. Tipu’s Tiger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GefplfGGUM

Tipu’s Tiger refers to an automaton made for Tipu Sultan – the ruler of Mysore in south India from 1782 to 1799. Built in 1793 in the form of a life-sized tiger attacking a European soldier, it was both an impressive automaton and a powerful symbol of local resistance against the British. According to accounts, the tiger could even produce realistic growls and roars, while the man screamed in agony.

The tiger remained in Tipu’s possession until 1799, when British forces defeated and killed him during a military campaign. It remains on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London today, along with many other prized possessions taken from Tipu’s palaces across south India. 

4. Maori Heads

From 1769 to the 1970s, thousands of ancestral remains belonging to the Maori and Moriori people of New Zealand were taken out of the country and sold to private collectors, museums, and medical institutions around the world. The most prized of these are the toi moko, or tattooed heads of notable leaders, family members, or defeated enemies preserved by native communities as souvenirs. 

According to the records, the first ever trade of a toi moko was done by a member of James Cook’s party, Sir Joseph Banks, some time in 1769. Soon, they were in demand across Europe and beyond for their detailed artwork and cultural value, resulting in a kind of a gold rush but for mummified tattooed heads instead of gold. The ever-rising global demand for the artifacts – peaking during the 1800s and 1820s – directly led to several conflicts and violent confrontations between the settlers and natives. While many of them have been returned to New Zealand as a part of the government’s efforts to repatriate national treasures, thousands still remain hidden in private collections around the world. 

3. Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele created during the Ptolemaic Period of Ancient Egypt. At its most basic, a stele was a large ornate stone slab used in Egypt to commemorate significant events or individuals. In this case, the Rosetta Stone was a part of a larger collection of stelae issued by a council of priests in 196 BC. 

The Rosetta Stone is unique for many reasons, including the fact that the information inscribed on it is written in two languages – Egyptian and Greek – and three other writing systems – hieroglyphics, the demotic script, and the Greek alphabet. Specifically, the text refers to a royal decree of benefactions issued by King Ptolemy V in honor of his coronation. 

It was discovered by a French soldier called Pierre-Francois Bouchard during the French occupation of Egypt in 1799, and then seized by the British in 1801 following their victory in the Napoleonic Wars. The Rosetta Stone was eventually transported to England and donated to the British Museum in London, where it remains on display today. 

2. Ethiopian Tabots

Ethiopian tabots – or plaques – are sacred objects made of wood or stone that represent the Ark of the Covenant. They’re an important part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church – an institution that predates the European colonization of Africa – and are only meant to be viewed or handled by their priests. According to the stories, there are believed to be 44 tabots in total, each representing a different church or region in Ethiopia.

11 of them, however, now sit in the British Museum as a part of its vast collection of historical and cultural items from around the world. They were taken during the British expedition to Abyssinia in 1868, when British soldiers looted a number of valuable artifacts from the Emperor’s treasury and transported them back to London. There have been a number of attempts by the Ethiopian government to return them back to the country in the years since, though to little success. 

1. Great Star Of Africa

At 3,106 carats and about 4 X 2.5 X 2.3 inches in dimensions, the Cullinan diamond was the largest clear-cut diamond ever found. It’s named after Sir Thomas Cullinan – the owner of the Premier Mine near Pretoria, South Africa – where it was discovered back in 1905. The Cullinan diamond was later split into several smaller stones, the largest of which was the Great Star of Africa at 530 carats, also known as the Cullinan I. 

Currently, the Great Star of Africa – along with other pieces from the Cullinan set – is mounted on the Sovereign’s Scepter as a part of the British royal family’s crown jewels. South Africa has made several demands for the diamond’s return over the years, but the British government has refused all of them, usually citing legal and historical reasons.

To the victor go the spoils. Throughout history, many conquerors or colonizers have taken treasures back to their homelands as part of their expansions. Sometimes, it was done to fund their wars. Other times, these items were just considered novelties.

Regrettably, many of these objects were lost or ruined. For example, thousands of mummies were unwrapped for entertainment at parties in 19th-century England. But other items found their way from one owner to the next until landing in a museum.

Though acquired through questionable methods, these cultural treasures remain on display in foreign lands hundreds or thousands of years after their thefts. Here are 10 such stolen treasures on display at museums.

10 Stolen Ancient Artifacts That Carried Curses

10 The Elgin Marbles
Taken From Greece And Displayed In England

The Elgin Marbles are a collection of Greek sculptures and architectural details that were originally part of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. During the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the ambassador to the empire, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, arranged to have the marbles removed and taken back to England.

He was concerned about the damage being done to them and hoped to safeguard them from being destroyed by Ottoman indifference. So, in the early 19th century, the collection was packaged and sent to England. Mostly, it arrived safely. (The cargo on one ship sank into the water during a storm, but the sculptures were eventually recovered from the seafloor.)^[1]

The removal of these treasures was met with an outcry from the people of Greece and even Lord Elgin’s countrymen, including the famous poet and politician Lord Byron. Within a few short years, the entire collection was purchased from Elgin by the English Crown and eventually displayed in the British Museum in London.

Lord Elgin’s original concerns about damage under Ottoman rule became a moot point in 1832 when the Ottomans recognized Greece as an independent nation. As a result, Greece could control the marbles and ensure that they were protected by people who appreciated Greek cultural heritage.

Yet the collection was not returned. For some time, the British argued that no adequate facilities existed in Greece to display Elgin’s Marbles. But in 2009, a $200 million, 21,000-square-meter (226,000 ft²) museum was constructed near the base of the Acropolis.

At one point, the British Museum offered to loan the marbles to the Acropolis Museum on the condition that they acknowledge England’s ownership of the artifacts. This proposal was rejected, and the marbles remain on display at the British Museum in London.

9 Priam’s Treasure
Taken From The Ottoman Empire And Displayed In Russia

The ancient city of Troy (in what is now the country of Turkey) was excavated by a German man named Heinrich Schliemann when archaeology was in its infancy. Schliemann was obsessed with finding objects mentioned in the Iliad and the Odyssey, ancient epic poems by Homer that centered around events associated with a legendary war between Greece and Troy.

Ultimately, Schliemann succeeded. He found the ancient city of Troy and a forgotten treasure trove that included precious jewelry, gold headdresses, masks, and other artifacts.^[2]

Since then, Schliemann’s methods have been condemned by archaeologists as an insult to their work. While digging for treasure, he irreparably destroyed layers of the ancient city. In addition, Schliemann had no intention of sharing his discovery with the Ottoman Empire, from whose land he smuggled the artifacts.

After a few years on exhibit in London, the treasure trove went to Berlin, Germany, in 1881. The items were displayed at Kunstgewerbe Museum and then at the Ethnological Museum. However, after the end of World War II and the defeat of Germany, the artifacts disappeared.

Eventually, in 1993, it was revealed that the collection had fallen into the hands of the Soviet Union’s Red Army. They had taken the artifacts as spoils of war. Later that decade, they were again displayed—in Russian possession. Today, the majority of Priam’s Treasure is on exhibit at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

8 Ishtar Gate
Taken From Iraq And Displayed In Germany

The Ishtar Gate is an imposing structure that was once one of the many entrances to the inner city of Babylon in what is present-day Iraq. Constructed by King Nebuchadnezzar II, the gate was dedicated to Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war.

It was made with blue glazed bricks assembled in a mosaic that included lion, aurochs, and dragon reliefs. Between 1899 and 1917, the structure was excavated and moved to Germany. Eventually, part of the gate was reconstructed and displayed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.^[3]

Like so many archaeological treasures taken from their homelands, the Ishtar Gate is a disputed piece of history. Although requests for its return have been made by the Iraqi government over the years, it remains in Berlin because it was taken legally at the time.

Between 1533 and 1918, the country now known as Iraq was under Ottoman rule. Then the area was under British control for some decades. During that time, many artifacts were taken back to Europe freely under the laws of the Ottoman and British Empires.

However, when Iraq gained its independence, the laws governing its cultural heritage changed. By 1936, the laws allowed foreign archaeologists to excavate and to publish research based on what they found, but all recovered artifacts were owned by Iraq.

In 2013, an Iraqi man protested at the Pergamon Museum by holding a sign in front of the Ishtar Gate that read, “This belongs to Iraq.” The Ishtar gate and associated artifacts are on display in many museums around the world.

7 Rosetta Stone
Taken From Egypt And Displayed In England

The Rosetta Stone is a slab of granitoid rock that has the same message written on it in three languages: Egyptian hieroglyphics, mainly used by priests; Egyptian demotic, used for everyday purposes; and ancient Greek.

Before the Rosetta Stone’s discovery, hieroglyphics were a mystery to scholars. However, as the artifact had the same message inscribed in a language that scholars already understood, they were able to break the code and finally decipher the hieroglyphics.^[4]

This unique artifact was discovered in 1799 during Napoleon Bonaparte’s Egyptian campaign near the town of Rashid (Rosetta), which explains the name. It came into the possession of the British when they defeated Napoleon in Egypt two years later. Then they took the Rosetta Stone to England.

Egyptian officials have demanded its repatriation for decades. Egyptian archaeologists have also tried to convince the British Museum in London to return the artifact but to no avail. It is still displayed in London to this day.

6 Hoa Hakananai’a
Taken From Rapa Nui (Easter Island) And Displayed In England

Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island) is famous for its giant carved figures called moai that were made from 1100 to 1600. During those 500 years, the moai became increasingly complex and whole crowds of them were constructed and erected—approximately 900 in total. With their backs to the ocean, they watched over their island home.

Most were carved from the island’s tuff, but a few were made from basalt. One basalt figure considered a masterpiece is called Hoa Hakananai’a, which aptly translates to “stolen friend.”^[5]

Believed to have been created sometime around AD 1000 to AD 1200, Hoa Hakananai’a remained on Rapa Nui for hundreds of years. Then, in 1869, it was carried to a different island named England and presented to Queen Victoria. From there, Hoa Hakananai’a was given to the British Museum in London where it remains to this day.

However, the moai are more than art made of basalt and tuff. The people of Rapa Nui believe that the moai contain the spirits of their ancestors. In 2018, the governor of Rapa Nui visited England and tried to negotiate the return of Hoa Hakananai’a, even if only as part of a loan. She said, “We all came here, but we are just the body—England people have our soul.”

10 Stolen Pieces Of Art That Have Never Been Found

5 The Gweagal Shield
Taken From Australia And Displayed In England

About 250 years ago, British explorer James Cook arrived in what later became known as Botany Bay in Australia. He was met by two local men carrying shields and spears. In his journal, Cook reported being attacked by these men with stones and spears. This forced his crew to discharge their firearms and wound the attackers, who fled and left behind some of their equipment.

From the Gweagal clan’s perspective, though, Cook’s crew were unannounced visitors and needed to negotiate permission to enter the clan’s country. Sometimes, this would happen through dialogue. Other times, it would occur through spiritual ceremony.

However, Cook didn’t know about or understand the local customs. So this meeting ended in hostilities during which the Gweagal Shield was dropped. Eventually, this shield made it back to James Cook’s homeland and was displayed alongside many other artifacts in the British Museum.^[6]

Since 2016, Rodney Kelly, a possible descendant of the man who dropped the shield during the skirmish with James Cook, has rallied for the shield’s return to Australia. In the last four years, he has made repeated visits to England to advocate for the shield’s repatriation.

As of this writing, his calls have landed on deaf ears and that seems unlikely to change. According to British law, it would be illegal to return this artifact and many others. The British Museum Act of 1963 forbids the museum from permanently disposing of its holdings with only rare exceptions.

4 The Koh-i-Noor Diamond
Taken From India And Displayed In England

Until diamonds were discovered in Brazil in 1725, India was the only real source of them throughout the world. Often sifted from riverbeds in alluvial mining, gemstones held a prominent place in Indian culture.

The world’s oldest texts on gemology originate in India. Jewels were the most important indicators of status in ancient Indian courts, with different gems representing distinct levels of hierarchy.

From this golden age of gems came the diamond that would eventually be known as Koh-i-Noor. Originally a magnificent 793 carats, it was trimmed to 186 carats while owned by the Kakatiya Dynasty and finally to 105.6 carats when cut and polished in England.^[7]

When India was under Mughal rule, the Koh-i-Noor diamond was used as part of a jewel-encrusted throne that took seven years to build and cost four times as much as the Taj Mahal. Later, the throne and the Koh-i-Noor were taken to the region now known as Afghanistan.

For ages, the diamond shuffled between owners in bloody conflicts until it finally landed in sight of the British Empire in 1849. The empire signed a treaty that included the Koh-i-Noor becoming its property. The treaty was signed with a 10-year-old boy king, who also gave up his sovereignty.

From there, Queen Victoria took possession of the Koh-i-Noor. The diamond was put on display for the British public, but they were underwhelmed. Many people couldn’t believe that it was anything more than a simple piece of glass. So the diamond was cut and polished, losing over 80 carats in the process. Eventually, it was included in the crown jewels of England, where it remains to this day.

India, Pakistan, and even the Taliban have all make claims to this unparalleled diamond.

3 Bust Of Nefertiti
Taken From Egypt And Displayed In Germany

Ancient items usually show their age. Over time, colors fade, cracks develop, and repeated use or neglect damages what was once perfect. For at least one artifact, though, time seems to have had relatively little effect.

Around 1340 BC, a bust of Queen Nefertiti was constructed of limestone, gypsum, and wax in Egypt. Unlike so many artifacts of the time, this bust of Queen Nefertiti has aged gracefully. Its shape remains largely undamaged, its colors are intact, and the face of the queen appears unsullied by age.

It is rare to find so pristine an ancient figure in the modern era. The bust was unearthed by German archaeologists in 1912. The following year, it found its way to Germany and has stayed there ever since.^[8]

In 2011, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities sent a request to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation for the artifact’s return. The foundation runs the museum in which the bust is now displayed. They replied that the bust was obtained legally and Egypt has no grounds to reclaim it.

The Supreme Council of Antiquities explained, “This request is a natural consequence of Egypt’s long-standing policy of seeking the restitution of all archaeological and historical artifacts that have been taken illicitly out of the country.”

The foundation’s president disagreed: “[The bust of Nefertiti] is and remains the ambassador of Egypt in Berlin.”

2 Kumluca Treasure
Taken From Turkey And Displayed In The United States

This collection of over 50 pieces consists mostly of silver religious artifacts such as crosses, candlesticks, and dishes. It is thought to have all originated from a single church. However, the collection was excavated in a clandestine and likely illegal way which makes an exact dating of the artifacts difficult. Nevertheless, they are of Byzantine origin.

Uncovered in the 1960s, these relics were smuggled out of the country and into the United States. However, a 1906 Ottoman law dictates that all antiquities discovered in Turkey’s territory remain the property of the government. It is not legally clear if modern-day Turkey can use this version of its cultural property protection law to regain these items in an international setting.

The collection has been split apart and is now displayed in several different museums. These include the Getty Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection at Harvard University.^[9]

As early as 1970, the Turkish government requested the return of the Kumluca Silver, but they were ignored. Since then, many requests have been made. As of this writing, no museum holding any pieces of the Kumluca Silver has returned their holdings to Turkey. In 2012, Dumbarton Oaks asserted in a press statement that they have the legal rights to the artifacts in their possession.

1 Old Fisherman From Aphrodisias
Taken From Turkey And Displayed In Germany

So much art celebrates the incredible. Statues of heroes from mythology look down on us from atop their perches in many museums, but one valued statue, the Old Fisherman, is a more down-to-earth consideration of humanity.

Created around 200 BC, this artifact has a complex history, and what the marble statue represents is far from mythological. The gaunt muscles and tired eyes of the Old Fisherman capture the story of his ancient life in stone.

In 1904, only the fisherman’s torso (wearing a loincloth) was discovered by French engineer and amateur archaeologist Paul Gaudin. This occurred during an excavation of the public baths of the ancient Greek Hellenistic city of Aphrodisias (in what is now Turkey).

Eventually, Gaudin’s heirs sold the torso to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. The head of the statue was discovered in a subsequent dig in 1989. However, it remains in Turkey. So a plaster cast of the head was added to the marble torso in the Berlin museum.^[10]

Though repeated calls have been made for its repatriation, the Old Fisherman is still in Berlin. It has been displayed at the Pergamon Museum and the Altes Museum. Ertugrul Gunay, Turkey’s cultural minister until 2013, once said, “Artifacts—just like people, animals, or plants—have souls and historical memories. When they are repatriated to their countries, the balance of nature will be restored.”

10 Stolen Cultural Artifacts That Were Recovered

The Interpol Stolen Arts Database houses an immense list—over 52,000 records—of stolen works of art, along with pictures and descriptions of each piece. Countries all over the world contribute records of stolen treasures—certified with police information—in an effort that spans oceans, crosses continents, and transcends borders. In the billion-dollar black market, it’s no surprise that both art theft and recovery are big business. Here are ten times lost works of art have been rediscovered through unusual circumstances.

10 Woman-Ochre

A late-November heist at the University of Arizona Museum of Art in 1985 resulted in the loss of the $160 million painting Woman-Ochre by American-Dutch artist William de Kooning and a 32-year mystery regarding the valuable art’s whereabouts. The theft was carried out by a couple shortly after the museum opened, with the woman distracting a security guard before the guard could reach her upstairs post. Meanwhile, the male cut the painting from its frame. The couple made off with the invaluable painting before the guard discovered Woman-Ochre had disappeared.

With no cameras or fingerprints to go on, Woman-Ochre remained missing until the death of two well-traveled schoolteachers. Jerome and Rita Alter passed away in the tiny New Mexico town of Cliff in 2017, leaving their nephew to execute their estate, including a painting that hung behind their bedroom door. Antique dealer David Van Aucker soon paid $2,000 for the deceased couple’s art, taking possession of pieces that included the valuable painting. He hung the art in his Silver City store, where customers recognized the piece.

After a process that involved the FBI and a 2½-year restoration, Woman-Ochre hangs back on the same wall she was removed from in 1985. Meanwhile, the Alter family is left to wonder if a short story Jerome Alter penned about a 120-carat jewel being stolen by a woman and her daughter while a guard is distracted, then hanging it behind a wall panel for the two thieves’ secret enjoyment is based on more than just imagination. ^[1]

9 Tiffany Glass

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

In May 2018, New York City-based art glass dealers Howard and Paula Ellman made a startling discovery. After placing the winning bid on several items at a Pennsylvania auction, they found that some of the glass, including a Tiffany Favrile Vase, had been stolen from them 37 years prior. The discovery happened when the shipping service the Ellmans hired delivered four of the items they’d won with call-in bids. While unpacking the items, Howard discovered their own shop labels on the bottom of the Tiffany pieces, labels which the couple always removed when a piece was sold.

Upon further investigation, the same auction the Ellmans had purchased their own stolen glass from had sold 16 more of the 40-50 Tiffany pieces they’d lost in the unsolved robbery. Thanks to the documentation Paula had held onto for nearly four decades, it was determined that the couple were entitled to the return or value of all 16 stolen Tiffany works; works whose worth had drastically increased during their missing years.^[2]

8 Marble Bust

Loyal Goodwill shoppers might mention the nonprofit’s mission to empower the less fortunate, the low-cost, or, less frequently, the discovery of literal treasure. This was the case for Laura Young, an antique dealer who stumbled across the find of a lifetime for $34.99 at an Austin Goodwill. The discovery, a 50-pound (22.7-kilogram) marble sculpture, turned out to be a first-century bust of Roman general Drusus Germanicus that went missing from the German museum Pompejanum during World War II.

After hiring a lawyer to facilitate the return of the 2,000-year-old bust to its rightful owners, Young’s lawyer brokered an agreement that included the San Antonio Museum of Art hosting the artwork until May 2023.^[3]

7 Palette

A Florida architect stumbled across a stolen work from Jon Corbino at an estate sale in Sarasota. The painting, named Palette for the actual artist’s palette it was painted on, was one of several owned by the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall from the same artist. Though it was not the most valuable, it was the most popular work in the collection. The painting hung in the lobby of the lower gallery of the hall and went missing during an Oak Ridge Boys concert in the early 1990s.

Eric Bower, the architect and weekend yard sale enthusiast, recognized Corbino’s piece when he spotted it. Having come across the works of famous painters at garage sales before, Bower purchased the piece for just $25 and made contact with the artist’s daughter, who informed him that Palette was a stolen work.

Bower returned the stolen painting to the performing arts hall, even refusing a reward. Though the location of the painting is no longer a mystery, the question of who took it still persists. According to the son of the estate from which Palette was purchased, his mother had stored several pieces of art for an unknown man who’d never retrieved them.^[4]

6 Walking Horses

Standing 16 feet tall and 33 feet long (4.8m x 10m), Josef Thorak’s bronze horses once stood on either side of the stairs leading into Adolf Hitler’s New Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. The imposing sculpture disappeared with the Soviets during World War II, showing up in the 1950s in Eberswalde at a location used for the Red Army barracks’ sports grounds/ They had been painted gold to mask bullet holes. The horses disappeared again with the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, with speculation being that the sculpture had been sold or the horses melted down.

In 2015, the horses were finally rediscovered after an investigation was launched when the sculpture was put on the black market with a reported price tag of $5.6 million. The story of the horses’ journey then unraveled. Shortly before the fall of the Berlin wall, Helmut Schumacher, a vintage car dealer, had discovered an article in which an art historian had noted her discovery of several bronze statues in Eberswalde, including Walking Horses. An intense, complicated smuggling operation ensued, with bribes sprinkled liberally and Red Army soldiers themselves assisting the smugglers.

Due to the horses’ sheer size, the sculpture had to be cut up in order to be smuggled to the Western side of Berlin, eventually ending up in possession of the man paying the bribes—a businessman by the name of Rainer Wolf. When Wolf’s property was searched in May 2015, investigators discovered not only Walking Horses but a number of other illicit Nazi artworks that were subsequently seized and turned over to the German government.^[5]

5 Tres Personajes

Plucked from a pile of garbage in Manhattan after noticing it during a morning walk, Elizabeth Gibson hung the oil painting titled Tres Personajes” by Rufino Tamayo on her wall before research led her to a segment on missing masterpieces on Antique Roadshow FYIs. The piece, considered an important work from Tamayo’s mature period, had been purchased from Sotheby’s auction house in 1977 for $55,000 as a gift from a husband to his wife. Ten years later, the painting, unique in that marble dust and sand were mixed into the medium, was stolen from a Houston warehouse where it was being stored during a move. Though the original owners reported the loss to both Houston and federal authorities, and the painting was listed in multiple databases, no leads turned up.

After learning the value of the oil painting, Gibson returned it to the original gift recipient, now widowed, and accepted a $15,000 reward. Gibson also received an undisclosed percentage of the painting’s $1,049,000 sale price when it was then sold through Sotheby’s New York auction house twenty years after the theft in 2007.^[6]

4 Madonna and Child

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Most of the works of Italian artist Giovanni Battista Salvi, born in 1609 at Sassoferrato in the Marches, reside in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle in Britain. So it was no surprise that when one of his drawings was donated to the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in 2021, the museum staff was ecstatic. The rare, circa-1650 Baroque work had been purchased by John and Sylvie O’Brien in 1970 from an unknown French collector.

Fifty-one years later, the couple, unaware that the drawing had been listed as stolen since 1965, donated it to the museum. Though no one knows exactly when the Sassoferatto was stolen as it was discovered torn from its base by a student doing research at the Graphische Sammlung, employees of the Washington County Museum of Fine Art verified it was indeed the valuable drawing. It was due to be returned to its rightful museum in August 2022.^[7]

3 Poppy Field at Vetheuil and Blooming Chestnut Branches

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh are unarguably two of the most well-known impressionist artists in the world, their works commanding millions of dollars at auction. They also tempt thieves, hoping to cash in on the black market.

On February 10, 2008, three masked, armed men made off with a $163.2-million haul from the private impressionist and neo-impressionist museum, the E.G. Buehrle Collection. In addition to Edgar Degas’s Ludovic Lepic and Boy in a Red Waistcoat by Paul Cezanne, the thieves grabbed Monet’s Poppy Field at Vetheuil and van Gogh’s Blooming Chestnut Branches. Though rather than being specifically targeted, authorities believe the thieves simply grabbed the first four works of art they came to.

In an unexpected twist, both the Monet and van Gogh were discovered only days later—still protected by the museum glass they were displayed under—in a sedan abandoned in front of a psychiatric hospital just a few feet from the Zurich museum. Eventually, all four paintings were recovered, and though little information is available on the 2009 recovery of the Degas works, Boy in a Red Waistcoat was found hidden in the roof upholstery of a black van in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2012.^[8]

2 Third Imperial Easter Egg

In July 1918, the Russian Imperial Family’s executions shocked the world. After their tragic demise, some of the family’s most extravagant possessions, the Fabergé Easter eggs, were confiscated from the Romanov palaces by the Bolsheviks and taken to the Kremlin Armoury. The eggs, created for the family from 1885 to 1916, were considered to be both the crowning achievement of Fabergé as well as the last great art commissions. They remained unopened in their storage crates until Joseph Stalin came into power and determined the valuable eggs could be sold to the Western world. Though some of the eggs were sold, others were hidden by Kremlin curators, and over time, the whereabouts of eight of the original 50 Imperial Easter Eggs became unknown.

One of those, the third Imperial egg, created in 1887 and considered missing since 1922, was discovered at a flea market stall by a scrap metal dealer in the midwest in 2004. Having paid more than the egg was worth as scrap, the yellow-gold Romanov treasure sat in the dealer’s cabinet for nearly a decade until research led him to suspect his flea market purchase could, in fact, be one of the missing Imperial Eggs. Once the origin of the golden bauble was confirmed, the Easter egg was sold to a private collector for a sum estimated to be around $33 million.^[9]

1 Alleged Imperial Easter Egg

Currently awaiting authentication is yet another of the lost Imperial Easter Eggs. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Western countries imposed sanctions on Russian oligarchs. Found aboard a 348-foot (106-meter) superyacht seized in Fiji is what is believed to be one of the seven missing Imperial eggs. The discovery was revealed by Lisa Monaco, U.S. deputy attorney general, after the $300 million vessel owned by Suleiman Kerimov was docked in San Diego in June 2022. Once confirmed, only six Imperial Fabergé eggs will remain missing.^[10]