Antique hunting with...Roo Irvine

Lost Treasures

It’s the stuff of novels, Hollywood movies and daydreams. Who hasn’t fantasised about discovering a lost treasure hidden in a cave, buried on a desert island or lying forgotten in a suburban attic?

The world is full of undiscovered artefacts and valuable antiques. How these treasures became ‘lost’ in the first place is often due to misfortune, conflict or catastrophe.

Ever since mankind learned to make objects that were practical, valuable or desirable there has been a market for both legitimately traded and stolen items.

Mosaic of Neptune and Amphitrite in Herculaneum, Italy

Photo by Jebulon CC0 1.0

Looting is almost as old as civilisation itself. By the time Alexander the Great invaded Egypt in 332BC grave robbers had already emptied most of the Pharaohs’ tombs and sold the treasures within to ‘collectors’.

And, when you consider most conquering armies throughout history have regarded the looting of art works as legitimate spoils of war it’s not surprise that items from one country can, and frequently do, show up in another thousands of miles from home.

In the 16th century rich European noblemen began to see travel as an educational experience. That lead to the popularity of the Grand Tours of the 17th and 18th centuries when the desire to acquire souvenirs and curiosities, especially following the rediscovery of the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, helped fuel an international trade in antiquities.

Looted art stored at Schlosskirche Ellingen, Bavaria WWII

During the colonial expansions of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries demand for antiques soared and plunder for personal and institutional reasons became commonplace. The British Empire was certainly no stranger to such practices, especially in Asia, Africa and India, and neither were the French during the Napoleonic years.

In the 20th century some of the world’s greatest treasures were looted, first by the Nazis and then by both the Soviet and Allied armies, resulting in items being scattered around the globe.

Generals Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton inspect looted art at end of WWII

Many art works, including pieces by Van Gogh, Raphael and Klimt, were among priceless treasures plundered during WWII. Some have been tragically destroyed or were hidden and their whereabouts remain undiscovered.

Perhaps one of the strangest artefacts to disappear in WWII was an entire room. Nicknamed ‘the eighth wonder of the world’ the Amber Room was given by Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I to Russia’s Peter the Great as a gift to cement an alliance against Sweden in 1716.

Installed in the Catherine Palace, near St Petersburg, the walls were constructed from 1000lbs of amber backed with gold leaf and embellished with mirrors and ornate carvings.

The Amber Room destroyed in WWII

When the Nazis attacked Russia in 1941 the room was painstakingly dismantled by the invaders and shipped back to Germany where it disappeared. There are fears it may have been destroyed during the conflict but some people still believe it’s hidden in an underground bunker somewhere.

There are also smaller items which remain elusive, such as eight Imperial Easter Eggs created by Faberge for the Russian Tsar in the late 1800’s. Of the 50 eggs commissioned only 42 are accounted for. Anybody who comes across just one of these is in for a huge surprise as they’ve been valued at around £24million each.

It is not impossible that one or more of the eggs are lying forgotten in an attic or basement somewhere. If a £43million, 300-yr old Qianlong vase can turn up in a semi-detached house in the London suburb of Pinner, as happened in 2010, maybe a Faberge egg could be under your floorboards.

Gatchina Palace Fabergé egg

Sometimes the most wonderful discoveries are those we find accidentally. In July 2019, a medieval Viking chess-piece bought for £5 sold for £735,000. It was one of a number of pieces discovered in 1831 in the sand dunes of the Isle of Lewis.

Known as the Lewis Chessmen 82 pieces are kept in the British Museum and 11 pieces are held by the National Museum of Scotland. However, five pieces needed to complete the four chess sets found in the dunes remained missing.

Lewis chessmen from the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

Photo by Christian Bickel CC BY-SA 2.0 DE

The piece, made from walrus ivory, sold in 2019 at auction had been kept in a drawer on the Isle of Lewis for 55 years by a family who had no knowledge of its history or value.

While any of these treasures would guarantee the finder a life-changing recompense the greatest reward would surely be in bringing such splendour back into the world.