Finally: A Digital Home For Lost Masterpieces

                                                                     

This is great news! And another example of ingenuity and technology.

TWO-THIRDS of work by some of the most renowned artists is thought to have been misplaced, stolen or destroyed, but an American art historian hopes to raise our appreciation of what remains by drawing attention to missing masterpieces.

Professor Noah Charney, of the American University of Rome and president of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art, has selected the first ten entries for a virtual Museum of Lost Art, which would have an auction value if miraculously discovered of almost $A1.06 billion.

Unlike the 1,400 paintings unveiled in Augsburg last week that were looted by the Nazis, these ten are almost certainly lost forever. They include works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Caravaggio as well as two examples of Classical sculpture. Some were stolen or destroyed by fire, one was used as target practice by French soldiers and one is even feared to have been fed to pigs by the Mafia.

"For most pre-modern artists, we know of far more works than are actually extant," Professor Charney said. "In many cases, some two thirds of the total oeuvre is considered lost. An awareness of just how much is lost is a poignant reminder of the value of the smaller percentage that still exists, that can be visited, and that must be protected and preserved."

Lost works, he says, can be re-created from their description in works such as Giorgio Vasari's 16th century Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, or through copies, as in Rubens' version of Leonardo's lost Battle of Anghiari.

Professor Carney's top ten was commissioned by Artfinder.com, the largest online platform for the purchase of art from around the world, and the estimations of their worth were provided by Coram James, the antique valuers.

It starts with the 12m chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statue of Athena, sculpted by Phidias, that stood in the Parthenon and would be worth an estimated $A170 million today. It is depicted on coins, miniatures and engravings and was described by the historian Pausanias. It was stripped and damaged by fire and last seen in Constantinople in the 10th century AD.

    

Most Classical Greek sculpture was cast in bronze and has since been melted down but many pieces survive through Roman copies in marble. Professor Charney has selected a sculpture of Hercules by Lysippus in 390BC, which also went missing in Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade.

The list also includes Leonardo's massive equestrian statue for Sforza Castle in Milan. He had made a 7m terracotta model but before he could cast it, Milan was overrun by French troops, whose archers used the horse as target practice. Another lost Italian work is the frescoes on the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice by Giorgione and Titian, which crumbled in the briney atmosphere. Only fragments survive.

                                                               

The most expensive item, valued at $A342 million, and one of the few that may still be found, is the Amber Room in the Catherine Palace near St Petersburg, Russia. The room, built between 1701 and 1711 by Andreas Schluter and given to Peter the Great, contained six tonnes of amber. It was looted by the Nazis and disappeared in Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad).

                                                                  

There are two Caravaggios on the list. The Palermo Nativity was stolen by the Mafia in 1969 and is rumoured to have been fed to pigs after being damaged in an earthquake while his Portrait of a Lady went missing during the fall of Berlin in 1945.

A two-tonne bronze, Reclining Nude by Henry Moore, was also stolen in 2005 during a world shortage in copper and bronze. It is feared the sculpture was sold as scrap for as little as $A2,500. If found, it would be worth $A17 million.

Rogier van der Weyden's four-part Justice of Trajan and Herkenbald were made between 1439 and 1450 and decorated Brussels Town Hall. They are thought to have been destroyed by the French in 1695 but survive as copies.

The final item is Michelangelo's Sleeping Eros, a forgery of a Roman sculpture. It is thought to have been destroyed in the Palace of Whitehall in 1698.

Professor Carney says that dozens more missing works could have been on the list, including a panel from the Ghent Altarpiece, one of the most frequently stolen works of art.

by Patrick Kidd

With many thanks to The Australian

Additional credits:

Amber Room Picture credit and lots more information here.

Conceptual image of Leonardo’s unmade horse from here.

A similar Chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statue of Athena, and more information here.

The 10 most-wanted missing paintings.



Posts on art
Van Gogh On Dark Water Animation
 
This Fake Rembrandt Was Created By An Algorithm  

Fore-edge Painting: Artists Hide Paintings Along The Edges Of Old Books  

Insanely Realistic Pencil Drawings

Found: A Missing Paul Gauguin Painting

Royal Academy of British Art Coming To Town

Australia and the UK Battle Over Historic Paintings Of A Kangaroo And A Dingo

Finally: A Digital Home For Lost Masterpieces

America: "Painting a Nation" Exhibition in Art Gallery of NSW

Chauvet Cave Paintings: Cave Women Left Their Artistic Mark

London exhibition of Australian art holds up a mirror to our nation: more iconic images
 
500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art

Some Fascinating Pictures featuring Alyssa Monks

Visual Art of the Human Body by Cecelia Webber

Ronnie Wood: His Art and The Rolling Stones

The lost Van Gogh: Painting found in Norwegian attic is confirmed as priceless work by Dutch master

Market Find Turns Out To Be A Lost Faberge Egg

Charles Dellschau: Secrets of An Undiscovered Visionary Artist

Tom Pinch: Time - Lapse Portraits of Paul McCartney and John Lennon

How JMW Turner Set Painting Free 

The Curious Case Of The Renaissance Cockatoo

Images On Andy Warhol’s Old Computer Discs Excite University Students

Human Ingenuity: From the Renaissance to the Age of the Internet - The Sistine Chapel

Katsushika Hokusai: Japanese Artist

Picasso's "Women of Algiers" Breaks Auction Record

Looted Treasures Open Door To The Dark Nazi Past

Long-lost Caravaggio Masterpiece Found In French Attic

Frederic Remington: The Man Who Helped Bring The West To Life 

Loving Vincent: The World's First Fully Painted Film 

Vincenzo Peruggia: The Man Who Stole The Mona Lisa And Made Her more Famous Than Ever

The Isleworth Mona Lisa: A Second Leonardo Masterpiece? 

 Optical Illusions In Art

MC Escher: An Enigma Behind an Illusion                                    
                      
Hidden Degas Portrait Revealed

First Faberge Egg Created For 99 Years Goes To Doha  

The World’s Priceless Treasures

Woman in Gold: Another Biopic For Dame Helen Mirren 

Australia and the UK Battle Over Historic Paintings Of A Kangaroo And A Dingo

Finally: A Digital Home For Lost Masterpieces

Could Anyone Paint A Vermeer? 

Artemisia Gentileschi - Her Biography And Her Art

John Constable Painting Sold By Christie's For £3,500 In June 2013 Will Now Go To Market To Sell For £2 million

The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy

Yulia Brodskaya:Paper Explodes With Life In This Artist's Hands

Images On Andy Warhol’s Old Computer Discs Excite University Students

Human Ingenuity: From the Renaissance to the Age of the Internet - The Sistine Chapel

Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Scotland’s Greatest Architect

David Bowie's Personal Art Collection Auctioned Off For $30 Million