ART LOST FOREVER – AN UNFATHOMABLE LOSS TO CIVILIZATION – Part 4

Works of art are a statement of and a commentary on the time, place and persons who created them and patronized them. They are the images of the civilization gone bye and help us to understand history. Although we may not realize it, art is a cultural statement that remains to inform and educate future generations of how life once was. This is what makes certain pieces of art more poignant and famous than others, when they come to symbolize a generation or period of time.

Though priceless and invaluable there have been occasions in history when they were not shown the respect they deserved and they were pillaged, plundered, stolen and destroyed. Thus either unknowingly or worse still, knowingly and with a vengeance of intolerance they have been destroyed and left gaping holes in the story of our civilization. So whether it was because of the World Wars or it was the plunder of Muslim fundamentalists of ISIS or Taliban, many precious works of art were lost forever. Accidents, fire, negligence and botched up restoration efforts too have contributed to the tragic loss of priceless artworks.

The wars have had a very detrimental impact on culture and civilization and art which remains an embodiment of both has suffered most and many epics have been lost forever. The invading armies were either ignorant of their true value or were so afraid of their potential to revive a culture that they purposely destroyed them.

When properly taken care of, works of art can persist through millenniums that tell the stories of the times passed to future generations. To preserve cultural heritage from getting destroyed, art galleries and museums have installed a set of rules designed to protect the artworks from thieves, vandals, and accidents. Artworks are often protected by safety ropes that keep the visitors at a reasonable distance. Some pieces are placed inside bulletproof glass boxes.

But, since art venues are trying to keep the sense of accessibility, many works are showcased without these protective items. Instead, they are guarded by a series of guidelines that the visitors must obey. For instance, viewers are often asked to leave their belongings (such as briefcases and umbrellas) at the front desk. Since children are prone to accidents of all kinds, museums demand that they must be accompanied by adults. Food and drinks are not allowed and touching the pieces is strictly forbidden.

There's a reason why museums and galleries ask people not to touch works on display. Human skin carries natural oils and acids that are harmful to artworks. A single touch can initiate permanent changes, darken the paint or corrode metal. But despite these rules, accidents happen and artworks get shattered, punched through or completely destroyed.

In a 5 part series I will be presenting 50 priceless and invaluable works of art which we will never be able to see again because they have been lost forever and this is the fourth series of 10 such masterpieces:

31. The Battle of Anghiari - Leonardo da Vinci

The Battle of Anghiari is a lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci, at times referred to as "The Lost Leonardo", which some commentators believe to be still hidden beneath one of the later frescoes in the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.

In terms of lost art, nothing has received quite the press of this Leonardo’s unfinished fresco secco. It was made in 1505 on a wall in the grand meeting hall of Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio, an intentional artist’s duel with Michelangelo, who was commissioned to illustrate a different battle scene on the opposite wall. But The Battle of Anghiari was never finished, and it had been commissioned at a time when the ruling Medici family were ousted from Florence.

When they returned, Duke Cosimo commissioned his architect, Giorgio Vasari to renovate the room, increasing its size and to paint it with a new fresco cycle showing Medici military victories. But Vasari, the first art historian, was a great admirer of Leonardo and it is unlikely that he willingly painted over the Anghiari fresco. He planted a clue for us to follow: In that immense room, the Salone dei Cinquecento, there are only two words painted in: Cerca trova. Seek and you shall find.

Scholars believe Vasari built a false wall over Leonardo’s painting, to protect it while still fulfilling his commission – a trick he used to successfully preserve Masaccio's Holy Trinity, opne of the most important paintings in history, when he renovated the church of Santa Maria Novella around 1570. The fresco was only rediscovered in 1860. There is hope that Leonardo’s Battle could likewise see the light of day, but its excavation has been tangled for years in the famously convoluted Italian bureaucracy. The story of Battle of Anghiari is told in Jonathan Jones’s fine book, 'The Lost Battles'.

32. A Lady and Gentleman in black - Rembrandt van Rijn

All of the Rembrandts in Mrs. Gardner’s collection were produced by the early 1630s, when Rembrandt was only 26 or 27 years old. He had already achieved a dazzling technical skill. Later images might be more profound, more searching, but these earlier masterful works were what made him famous.

Rembrandt painted many couples, some in very large formats. But the vast majority of these portraits are actually "pendants" — two separate canvases each picturing one member of the usually married couple. “A Lady And Gentleman In Black” is probably Rembrandt’s first double portrait including both figures on the same canvas. It’s impressively large — over 4-feet high by some 3½-feet wide. The colors are austere, but the clothing is rich, with amazingly detailed lacework (a Rembrandt specialty in this stage of his career), especially the woman’s elegant ruffled collar and lace cuffs. How tiny his brush must have been!

But what’s most striking about the painting is the position of the two figures. On the right, the woman is sitting in an elegant chair, looking out, but not at us — modest but self-possessed. Her left, gloved hand holds the glove of her naked right hand, which is resting on the arm of her chair. In the center, the man is standing, towering over her, swaggering, confrontational — his gloved left hand holding his right-hand glove; his right hand hidden, presumably on his hip, under his black cape. To his left is another chair, empty, simpler than the one the lady is sitting on. The seated woman, the standing man, and the empty chair form a triangle — the shape of solidity and stability. The room they’re in is quite spare, something — perhaps a map — is hanging on a wall behind the man. Also behind him are two steps leading up to a doorway his figure is blocking. Because we can’t really see the doorway, it seems more like an exit than an entrance. Though there’s an underlying tension, the situation is not about to change. The woman is strong, but not passive. The man is certainly in control — or thinks he is.

On the morning of March 18, 1990, two thieves dressed as policemen walked into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and walked out with 13 pieces of art valued at half a billion dollars. This Rembrandt painting was one of them.

33. Mask of a Faun - Michelangelo

This marble "Mask of a Faun" — a faun being a half-human, half-goat mythological creature — has been attributed to the Italian artist Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (lived A.D. 1475-1564), often simply called "Michelangelo." The Bargello Museum in Florence, Italy, owns the mask, which was stolen in August 1944 from Castello di Poppi (a castle in Tuscany). The thieves? Soldiers from the German army's 305th division that was attached to the 10th German Army, the Monument's Men Foundation notes on its website. The soldiers stole the mask sometime between Aug. 22 and Aug. 23 and placed it in a truck. "After a short stop in Forli, Italy, the 10th Army truck containing this work of art and others continued on Aug. 31," the foundation's website says. The mask's present location is unknown.

The Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564) is well-known for his art that strikes a sense of awe into the hearts and minds of the masses. The famous Statue of David and the remarkable painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are only two of the numerous works that make Michelangelo one of the most admired artists of the Italian Renaissance.

He was just a teenager when he made his first sculpture and as luck would have it, just the right man walked by him. This man, Lorenzo de’ Medici, was the ruler of Florence and a patron of the arts. After seeing his sculpture, Lorenzo knew Michelangelo was someone special and took the young boy under wing. Lorenzo paid for Michelangelo to attend San Marco School, an art school that Lorenzo founded and the school that helped to further shape Michelangelo into the artist whose work we still see today. However, we don’t see his first sculpture, the one that made Lorenzo invest in Michelangelo. His first sculpture is the somewhat eerie, but brilliant Mask of a Faun.

34. The Jules Rimet Cup - Abel Lafleur

The Jules Rimet Cup was awarded to the team that won the World Cup football tournament. The trophy — named after Jules Rimet, founder of the World Cup tournament — was sculpted by Abel Lafleur. The trophy was made of gold-plated sterling silver on a white/yellow marble base studded with precious stones. Its body comprised of a decagonal cup supported by a winged figure representing Nike, the Greek goddess of victory.

After Italy won the World Cup in 1938, the trophy was stored in a bank in Rome. During World War II, Italian vice-president of FIFA Ottorino Barassi secretly removed the trophy and kept it in a shoe box under his bed, for fear of it falling into the hands of the Nazis.

According to FIFA rules, the first team to win the Jules Rimet Cup three times would gain permanent possession of it. This happened in 1970, when Brazil won the cup for the third time. The cup was sent to Brazil and a new World Cup trophy was created.

In 1983, the cup was stolen when it was in Rio de Janeiro and hasn't been seen since. The thieves may have melted down the cup. In 2015, the Associated Press reported that the original stone base of the Jules Rimet Cup was found in a basement at FIFA headquarters in Switzerland. The stone base was in use until 1954, when a new base was created for the Jules Rimet Cup.

The cup was stolen once before as well. Just four months before the 1966 World Cup, the trophy was stolen while on display at the Westminster's Central Hall in England. Scotland Yard detectives, with the help of a black and white collie dog named Pickles, recovered the trophy a week later wrapped in newspaper and hidden in a suburban garden in south London.

The original Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen in 1983 but then it was not in use anymore as Brazil owned it. The subsequent trophy initiated in 1974 was called the "FIFA World Cup Trophy". Made of 18 carat gold with bands of malachite on its base, it stands 36.8 centimetres high and weighs 6.1 kilograms. Despite only being worth £3,000 at the time, the trophy was insured for £30,000 at the time of its theft.

35. The Treasures of Nimrud

The "Treasure of Nimrud" unearthed in these excavations is a collection of 613 pieces of gold jewelry and precious stones. It has survived the confusions and looting after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in a bank vault, where it had been put away for 12 years and was "rediscovered" on June 5, 2003.

The ancient city of Nimrud is located in modern-day Iraq and was a capital city of the Assyrian empire during the reign of Ashurnasirpal II (reign 883–859 B.C.). He built a new palace at Nimrud along with other amenities. Recent history has not been so kind to Nimrud. The terrorist group called the Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) captured the ancient city in June 2014 during a military offensive; the ancient city wasn't recaptured until November 2016.

Several videos released by ISIL showed the work of destruction in progress. In November 2016 Iraqi forces retook the site, and later visitors also confirmed that around 90% of the excavated portion of city had been completely destroyed. The ruins of Nimrud have remained guarded by Iraqi forces ever since.

By then, ISIS had blown up part of the city and used bulldozers to destroy and dig up other portions. Looting also took place in the period after the ancient city was retaken, when little security could be provided. While many treasures at Nimrud have been destroyed, others are damaged and can be reconstructed, and still others may be rediscovered on the black market.

36. World's first feature length film

The "Story of the Kelly Gang" (released in Australia in 1906) is regarded by many as being the world's first feature-length film. Running at over an hour long, the movie depicted the story of the 19th-century outlaw Ned Kelly (lived 1854-1880) and his gang.

The film was a huge success, film historians Sally Jackson and Graham Shirley wrote in an article on the National Film & Sound Archive of Australia's website. The film "opened in Melbourne on Boxing Day 1906 and went on to enthral audiences across the country," Jackson and Shirley wrote. "By late 1907, the film had screened in New Zealand and England, where it was billed as 'the longest film ever made.'"

"Reports of crime and censorship followed screenings around the country. In May 1907, the film inspired five local children in the Victorian town of Ballarat to break into a photographic studio to steal money, after which they bailed out a group of schoolchildren at gunpoint. In April, the Victorian Chief Secretary banned the film from Benalla and Wangaratta, two towns with strong Kelly connections."

Unfortunately, the film was never properly preserved, and by the 1970s, only "some publicity material and a few photographs" remained, Jackson and Shirley noted. Discoveries of bits of the film, along with restoration work, have allowed for about a quarter of the film to be revealed, but much of it remains lost.

Unfortunately many other classical films are lost for ever. Cleopatra (1917) was one such film. Theda Bara was American cinema’s first real siren. She vamped her way through film after film in the mid to late teens. Most people agree that her greatest achievement was her portrayal of titular queen in William Fox’s 1917 production of Cleopatra.

London after midnight (1927), The Great Gatsby (1926), The Way of all Flesh (1927), Convention City (1933) and 4 Devils (1928) are some other great classical films that are now lost forever and not even a single complete copy is available.

37. Love's Labour's Won and Cardenio - William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare wrote the play "Love's Labour's Won," though no copies survive today. It may be a sequel to "Love's Labour's Lost," a comedy that Shakespeare wrote in the 1590s. Documents in the 1590s and 1600s indicate that "Love's Labour's Won" was published by 1598 and was still being sold in 1603, although no surviving copies have been found, William Carroll, an English professor at Boston University, wrote in the preface to a republished edition of "Love's Labour's Lost" (Cambridge University Press, 2009).

Some scholars believe that all records of "Love's Labour's Won" refer to another play by Shakespeare called "Much Ado About Nothing," which is well known and performed today. One Royal Shakespeare Company production actually retitled a performance (which can be seen on YouTube) of “Much Ado about Nothing” to "Love Labour's Won" based on this theory.

There are thus 2 schools of thought on Love’s Labour’s Won – one that the play is a lost sequel to Love's Labour's Lost, the other that the title is an alternative name for an already known Shakespeare play.

The first mention of Love’s Labour’s Won occurs in Francies Meres Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury (written in 1598) where he lists 12 Shakespeare plays, including the text: “for Comedy, witnes his Ge[n]tleme[n] of Verona, his [Comedy of] Errors, his Loue labors lost, his Loue labours wonne, his Midsummers night dreame, & Merchant of Venice“. This text lends weight to the idea that Love’s Labour’s Won is indeed a unique and lost forever.

Cardenio is another play attributed to Shakespeare of which we can find no trace today.The History of Cardenio is a play based on a character in Cervantes’ novel, Don Quixote. There is a report of its having been performed by The King’s Men in 1613, but not attributed to any writer. It was later attributed to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher in a Stationers’ Register entry of 1653. But it was not included in the First Folio and there is no sign of any manuscript.

Careful scholarship over the years, especially in modern times, has identified some known plays that were not initially thought of as being the work of Shakespeare. We know, now, that Shakespeare collaborated with other writers on plays that were initially attributed to those other writers. We know, too, that the collaboration runs deep. The use of computer programs helps scholars to identify sections of dramas that were written by Shakespeare. We have to distinguish between the collaborations and the lost plays as the collaborations are not lost and can still be staged.

38. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - Rembrandt van Rijn

This tiny etching, just 1 inch and ¾ wide by nearly 2 inches high, is one of those Rembrandt marvels that is lost forever. We know from his other self-portraits and portraits of him by his students and other artists, that this is just what he must have looked like. Not yet 30, he is already a successful, even famous artist, but he does nothing to flatter himself. He’s a little pudgy, a little scraggly, his hair is tousled and unkempt, and he looks very serious. In a bill of sale, this etching is referred to as “Rembrandt with three mustaches,” since he has a mustache on his lip, some hair on his chin, and even the brim of his cap seems to have a mustache.

Rembrandt painted self portraits regularly throughout his life. In his early years especially, he used them as opportunities to experiment with different techniques of handling paint, different lighting effects, costumes and facial expressions. This invaluable piece of art was among the art treasures stolen from Isabela Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on March 18, 1990 when 13 works of art were stolen.

39.  The Amber Room - Andrea's Schlüter

The Amber Room is a world-famous chamber decorated in amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors, located in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg. Originally constructed in the 18th century in Prussia, the Amber Room disappeared during World War II and was recreated in 2003.

Dubbed the “Eight Wonder of the World”, this room was made with over six tons of amber and once belonged to the King of Prussia, Peter the Great. It’s thought to have been looted during WWII by the Nazis and taken to the city of Königsberg, never to be seen again. There is however a reconstructed version in the Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. Over time, the Amber Room was used as a private meditation chamber for Czarina Elizabeth, a gathering room for Catherine the Great and a trophy space for amber connoisseur Alexander II.

Construction of the Amber Room began in 1701. It was originally installed at Charlottenburg Palace, home of Friedrich I, the first King of Prussia. Truly an international collaboration, the room was designed by German baroque sculptor Andreas Schlüter and constructed by the Danish amber craftsman Gottfried Wolfram. Peter the Great admired the room on a visit, and in 1716 the King of Prussia—then Frederick William I—presented it to the Peter as a gift, cementing a Prussian-Russian alliance against Sweden.

The Amber Room was shipped to Russia in 18 large boxes and installed in the Winter House in St. Petersburg as a part of a European art collection. In 1755, Czarina Elizabeth ordered the room to be moved to the Catherine Palace in Pushkin, named Tsarskoye Selo, or "Czar's Village." Italian designer Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli redesigned the room to fit into its new, larger space using additional amber shipped from Berlin.

After other 18th-century renovations, the room covered about 180 square feet and glowed with six tons of amber and other semi-precious stones. The amber panels were backed with gold leaf, and historians estimate that, at the time, the room was worth $142 million in today's dollars.

When the Germans invaded Russia they took it apart and moved it back to Germany, which is where its story gets fuzzy. Some believe it was destroyed, like so many things, in the bombings, while others think it might have been packed up on a ship that sank.

40. The Boulevard Montmartre at Twilight - Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro was a Danish-French painter from 1830 until 1903. He was known for his contributions to the impressionist and post-impressionist movement. He loved to paint outdoors and capture the reality of life in the villages. He enjoyed painting the French countryside and would complete paintings in one sitting, staying outdoors for the entire duration. His art took on a more realistic look, which some found vulgar in that he would include bushes that were not perfect or plants that were still growing.

His middle years became more and more impressionist and the reason for which he was known as one of the fathers of impressionism. His much later years returned to a more realistic style and of painting the peasants and the French countryside. As he neared his final years he developed a recurring eye infection which prevented him from working outside during colder temperatures. Therefore, he would rent out hotel rooms so that he could paint out the window.

Pissarro ended up doing several pictures of the Boulevard Montmartre at different times of the day and different seasons. This particular painting of the Boulevard Montmartre features the street at twilight and the perspective suggests that it might have been painted as the view from his hotel room. This painting was looted by the Nazis and was later sold through a Swiss art dealer in 1941. There have been rumors that his painting has re-emerged a few times since the end of the war but there are no definitive leads about where the painting might be today.

We will continue with our journey through this tragic world of priceless works of art that are lost forever in our 5^th and last series in the next blog.