41 Lost Treasures That Even Indiana Jones Couldn’t Find

The Russian jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé, from 1885 to 1916, produced elaborately designed "Easter eggs" for the Russian imperial family. Sadly, several royal family members got taken out during the Russian Revolution, and some eggs were lost and erased from history. The ones that are secured are worth quite a lot of money.

According to folklore, a Nazi unit under SS leader Ernst Kaltenbrunner submerged a significant amount of money into Lake Toplitz in Austria after World War II. It was done to prevent it from falling into the hands of eastern armies. Numerous searches have been conducted, but no gold has yet been discovered.

The Honjo Masamune is a sword that many believe was made by Gor Nyd Masamune, regarded as the greatest swordsmith in Japanese history, who lived from 1264 to 1343. It was taken by the US occupying forces and then swiftly vanished. American troops probably destroyed the sword with many other Japanese weapons.

The city of Nimrud was captured in June 2014 and looted by the Islamic State, a terrorist group. Recaptured in 2016, it was time to count the stolen and destroyed items. Many of the valuables of Nimrud were lost forever, while others were damaged. Some of the loot got sold on the black market.

Completed in 1408, the Yongle Encyclopedia was the biggest in China and the globe. It got transferred to the Forbidden City around the 1500s for security. The original was lost or dispersed shortly after the emperor had it reproduced. Some historians think a fire that engulfed the Forbidden City during a revolt destroyed the Yongle Encyclopedia.

The Colossus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was modeled after the Greek sun deity Helios. It was built around 280 B.C, but a part of it got destroyed in a devastating earthquake that hit Rhodes in 226 B.C. Parts of the statue are still intact, unlike the remains of other antique artifacts.

The Greek lyric poet Sappho flourished in the seventh century B.C. Unfortunately, very few of her poems have survived the test of time. In 2014, University of Oxford specialist Dirk Obbink made portions of two previously undiscovered Sappho poems public. Locations of other works are unknown.

The "Just Judges" panel is a component of the 15th-century Ghent Altarpiece, a piece of art located in Saint Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium. It was created by Hubert and Jan van Eyck. The panel disappeared in 1934 and has been lost ever since. Nevertheless, despite the passing of time, new information keeps coming in, and the case file is still open.

The majority of scholars concur that Thomas Kyd's play Ur-Hamlet served as the inspiration for Shakespeare's well-known tragedy. Sadly, there are no copies of Ur-Hamlet left for us to enjoy. The only thing known is that Ur-Hamlet played in London, adding to the theory that William Shakespeare saw the play and got inspired to write his own Hamlet.

The text carved on a sheet of copper that describes the location of a large amount of hidden wealth might be the most remarkable Dead Sea Scroll found in the Qumran caves in the West Bank. According to some academics, the wealth mentioned in the Copper Scroll might be the one that was hidden from the approaching Roman soldiers.

Two shady burglars from Boston, Massachusetts, stole 13 items of art worth over $500 million. Rembrandt, a Dutch painter, contributed three of them, while Edgar Degas, a French artist, contributed five. The identity of the burglars is still a mystery, and the works of art were never found.

The Mexican revolutionary commander Francisco "Pancho" Villa was portrayed in the lost movie The Life of General Villa. Although it was made and shown, it is now gone. Shortly after the movie's debut, Villa's men invaded New Mexico and massacred several Americans, turning him into an enemy of the United States.

The gold-plated Parliamentary Mace symbolizes the Speaker's office and the people's constitutional rights. One of Australia's biggest mysteries is the theft of it from Victoria's Parliament. However, anyone who locates the mace today and returns it will get a hefty $50,000 prize.

Plato is known for many things, one of which is his Hermocrates - an end to a three part story. The texts are full of monologues and writings in the first person. What was written is left up to historians to speculate. The speaker might have been a Syracusan general and statesman. It might have provided insight into naval strategy and power.

You might have read Hamlet, but did you know about Love’s Labour’s Won, the lost William Shakespeare creation? Some academics contend that references to Love Labour's Won alludes to Shakespeare's well-known and often staged comedy Much Ado About Nothing. This work does not appear to have any surviving copies.

The Roman troops took the Second Temple's riches back to ancient Rome before it got destroyed. These riches included the menorah, a six-branched light stand. The menorah is large, almost like the soldiers carrying it. It's unknown what happened to the menorah once it arrived in Rome.

Because it was the cup that Jesus drank from or used to serve wine at the Last Supper, the Holy Chalice has been a subject of many adventures. It is linked to the Holy Grail, a mythical object from Arthurian mythology. To this day, scholars continue to disagree on the Holy Chalice's existence and location.

The remains of a hominid, known as Peking Man, found in a cave in 1923, could have shone some light on the history of humanity. However, the fossils vanished in 1941, during the Japanese invasion of China, and it is still unclear where they are. The fossils may have gotten lost at sea during their journey to the United States, who were trying to rescue them.

Even today, thrill-seekers and treasure hunters risk their lives and health to find the hidden treasure of the “Dutchman” in Apache Junction. The “Dutchman”, a German immigrant named Jacob Waltz, hid some gold in the mountains and took the location of it with him to the grave. Some believe that the trove is full of precious metals. 

Modern academics refer to the Q Source, or just Q, as a fictitious first-century A.D. document that includes some quotations ascribed to Jesus. The fact that some sections in Matthew and Luke are similar builds the foundation for Q Source. Sadly, this is only theoretically possible because of the lack of evidence.