How Archaeologists Lost 3 Ancient Treasures

TL;DR

Three ancient treasures — the Elgin Marbles, the Sarcophagus of Menkaure, and Childeric's tomb hoard — were each nearly or permanently lost through shipwrecks and theft.

Key Points

• 1.The Elgin Marbles nearly sank twice. In 1802, the ship Mentor carrying 17 cases of Parthenon sculptures sank off Cythera; a two-year salvage operation costing £5,000 recovered them. In 1941, they were loaded onto HMS Rodney, which was then diverted to fight the Bismarck and barely survived.
• 2.The Sarcophagus of Menkaure was permanently lost at sea. Discovered by Colonel Vyse in the Pyramid of Menkaure in 1837, the exquisite basalt sarcophagus was shipped aboard the merchant vessel Beatrice, which sank in a storm off Spain — wreck never located.
• 3.Childeric I's Frankish tomb treasure was stolen and melted down. Found in 1653 in Tournai, the hoard included 300+ golden bees, jeweled weapons, and a gold signet ring; after being given to Louis XIV, thieves stole it from the royal library in 1831 and destroyed nearly everything — only two coins, two bees, and sword fittings survived.
• 4.Ancient treasures were routinely destroyed before modern preservation awareness. In 1714, a peasant near Brescello found 80,000 Roman gold coins that were melted into ducats; thousands of Etruscan pots at Vulci were deliberately smashed to keep antiquities prices high.
• 5.Priam's Treasure exemplifies the recurring cycle of loss and rediscovery. Unearthed by Heinrich Schliemann at Troy in 1873 and acquired by Berlin's Royal Museums, it was seized by the Soviets at WWII's end and only revealed decades later to be held in Moscow's Pushkin Museum.