DK - Lost Masterpieces

Michael Collins

About this eBook

Produced for DK by To ucan B ooks DK LONDON Senior Editor Scarlett OHara Senior Des igner Mark Cav anagh Managing Edito r Gareth Jo nes Senior Managing Art Editor Lee G riths Senior Prod uction Edit or Gillian Reid Senior Prod uction Contr oller Rachel Ng Illustrator Emma Fr aser R eid Jacket Design Dev elopment Manager Sophia M .T .T. Jacket Designer Akiko Kato Associate Publishing Director Liz Wh eeler Art Direct or Karen S elf Publishing D irector Jonathan Me tcalf DK DELHI Senior Jack ets D esigner : Suhita Dharam jit Senior D TP De signer : Harish Aggarw al Senior Jack ets C oordinator : Priyank a Sharma- Saddi First published in Gr eat Brit ain in 2022 by Dorling K indersley Limited DK, O ne Em bassy G ardens, 8 Via duct G ardens, London, SW 7BW Copyright 2022 Do rling Ki ndersley Limited A Penguin Random House Compan y 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 001 3268 02J une/2022 All ri ghts r eserve d. No part of this publ ication may be reproduced , st ored i n or i ntroduced into a retrieval s ystem, or tran smitted , in a ny form , or by an y mean s (el ectroni c, me chanical, photocopy ing, r ecording, or oth erwise) , without the pr ior wr itten permission of the copyr ight own er. A CIP c atalogue record for thi s boo k is avail able f rom the Brit ish Li brary . ISBN: 97 8- 0- 2415 -3639 -1 Printed a nd bo und in La tvia www. dk.com Introduction Lo st The T om b of King Tut ankhamun Aphrodite of Knidos The T er racotta A rmy The Ale xander Mosaic China s Guardian Beasts The T ab ula Rogeriana Salvator Mundi Fondaco dei Ted eschi The Sistine T ap estries Lucretia Zodiac F ountain W ater Clock Anna Feodoro vna The Death of Cleopatr a Modern W oman The Battle of San J acinto Red and Gre en II Reclining Nude December in Ven ice The Reaper The W ounded T able Struggle: From the History of the A merican People Lifes Wo rk Untitled Gouache The Lenin Mosaic Tou ching North Stolen Mexican Antiquities The Book of Kell s The Ghent Altarpiec e The Last J udgement Mona Lisa St Christopher Carrying t he Christ Child Contents This book w as made with Fo rest Stewardsh ip Council certied paper o ne small step in DK s commitment to a sustainable future . For mor e inform ation go t o www .dk .com/o ur-g reen-pledge

The Benin Bronze s Nativity with St Fran cis and St Lawr ence The Head of a Bear ded Man Adam and Eve The Isabella Ste wart Gardner Heist Lioness and Lion in a Cave Les Choristes Funera ry Pole Summer s Day View of t he Sea at Schev eningen The Gates o f Hell The Scream Portrait s of A dele Swamp Legend Reading Girl in White an d Y el low Myrto Portrait of Fra ncis Bacon Two Fo rms (Divided Circle) Wine of Baby lon Camouage Series Chloe & Emma Damaged Nineveh s Lamassu Parthenon Marbles The Portland V as e Sutton Hoo Helmet Statue o f Vish nu The Bayeux Tap estry Fresc oes of the Lives of St Franc is and the Saints Piet The Night W atch The Roke by Ve nus The Dream Yel low Pumpkin Niagara Fa lls De stroyed The Buddhas of Bamiyan The J ustice of Tra jan and Herkinbald Bonre of the V an ities Equestrian Port rait of Emperor Philip IV The Amber Room The Last Moments of Michel Lepeletier Religion A ttended by the Virtues The Stone Br eakers Was hington Crossing the Delaware Beneath the Blue Room Water Lilies Man at the Crossroa ds Three W ork s Li Every Voi ce and Sing (The H arp) Portrait of Win ston Churchill Figurativ e Wo rk Reclining Figure Everyo ne I Have E ver Sle pt With Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn Pillar of Shame Love is i n the Bin Index Acknowledgments

F o r thousa nds of y ears, w e have embellished the w orld with a rt, creating a vast t reasury using stone, w ood, m etal, p igments, a nd other mat erials. Th e urge t o creat e art is one of the fun damental impulses of humanity . It is impossible to kno w how m uch art has been crea ted, l et alone how muc h of th is has disappeared. Th is book t akes the read er on an intriguing tr ail acro ss the globe in sear ch of a rt that we kno w has been plundered, d amaged, s tolen, d eliberat ely destr oyed, o r simply lost, i ts fate undocumented. S panning some ve millennia, i t provides a glimpse of the van ished achievements of ancient artisans, Old Masters, M odernists and Post- Modernists, a nd some of the avant- garde art ists of t oday . Art the from mu seums and private c ollections is a highly lucrati ve crime, n etting billions of dollars every year . T here is also a brisk trade i n forg eries, w ith half of the art works oe red fo r sale each ye ar believe d to be f akes. F rom t ime to t ime, w orks of art are f ound, u sually t hrough t he work of do gged art detectives but sometimes purely by chance . I n 2017, Les Choristes , a work by French Impressionist painter Edgar Degas t hat had been stolen nine years e arlier , w as foun d in the luggage compart ment of a bus. Such nds are rare, b ut we con tinue to hope that som e of th e lost masterpieces of the w orld will be discove red, b ringing joy and inspirat ion to all who see t hem.

Lost

I n November 1922, t he British archaeologist How ard Carter discovere d the burial chamber of the then little-know n boy- pharaoh T ut ankhamun, wh o had died in 1323 . C arter ha d spent several s easons ex cavat ing the barre n area of Egypt s Val ley of t he Kings. Th e chance discov ery of a stair case led him dow n a ight of 16 steps to a sealed doorw ay. At this point, h e dispatched a telegram t o his patr on Lord Carnarvon in England, w ho immediately set sail fo r Egypt . On 26 November , in the pre sence of Carnarvon, Carter br oke t hrough t wo doors, h aving noted that the doors had been resealed t wice in antiquity . F earing t hat the tomb had alr eady been plundered, h e peered into the chamber with only a taper to see by . To his astonishment, h e saw e very where the glint of gold . Although ancient tomb-r obbers may have g ot into the entrance corridor , it appeared t hat the tomb itself had re mained intact, i ts door hidden behind an accumulation o f rubble. Th e tomb conta ined more than 5,000 objects, i ncluding fo ur chariots, a set of t hree cons inside LOST c . 1 b ce