Top Five Lost Artworks

Artworks are lost for many reasons. Disasters, war, subjugation by religious or political authorities etc. are some of the most common causes. No matter what the reason is, the loss of a masterpiece is a big lose to our cultural heritage. Here is a list of top five lost artworks.

 1.       The Stonebreakers by Gustave Courbet

Courbet’s landmark painting wherein two peasants-an old man and a young man-were depicted breaking rocks shocked middleclass audiences upon its debut at the Paris Salon in the year 1850. The daring French painter used the canvas size usually reserved for regal portraits or religious paintings to create painting on a topic generally avoided by the other painters of that era. The Stonebreakers, however, was destroyed, along with 154 other portraits, during the Allied forces’ air attack in Feb. 1945.

2.       Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence by Caravaggio

Second on our list of top five lost artworks is Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence, created by Italian Baroque master Caravaggio during early seventeenth century. This masterpiece was lifted from a Sicilian Church, Oratory of San Lorenzo in 1969. While, nobody knows who the actual culprit behind the theft is, the local Sicilian mafia is generally considered responsible. A former mafia member turned police informant claimed in 1996 that he had lifted the painting on the command a high-ranking mobster and after passing through several hands, it was stored in a farmhouse where animals destroyed it. However, the FBI is still trying to recover the painting.

3.       Man at the Crossroads

It was a mural created by Diego Rivera for the entrance to Rockefeller Center.  on the commands of Rockefeller himself. In fact, Rockefeller wanted to exploit the services of Henri Matisse or Pablo Picasso for this work, but none of them was available so he commissioned Diego to create it. Diego was given the theme “Man at the Crossroads.” Rockefeller wanted to stir ambitions for a optimistic political future in the people through this painting.

Riveria painted two leftist heroes, Lenin and Trotsky, standing in the midst of a crowd of workers. The painting of Lenin upset Rockefeller, he asked Riveria to remove Lenin’s picture but he refused. Finally the painting was destroyed by workers.

4.       Works by Pablo Picasso: featured in the Mystery of Picasso

A French film director directed a documentary film the Mystery of Picasso in 1965 wherein a shirtless master (Picasso) was portrayed creating whimsical paintings and drawings for the camera. The innovative film which allows the viewers to see Picasso’s simple, abstract, yet powerful figures come to fruition stroke by stroke, it seems the process was more important than the upshot for both artist as well as filmmaker. Almost all of those paintings and drawings were destroyed upon completion, so they would exist on film only. The reels of the film were declared a national treasure by the French government.

5.       Study after Velazquez II

Created by an Irish artist Francis Bacon, Study after Velazquez II is actually a distorted version of the Portrait of Innocent X painted by Diego Velázquez during seventeenth century. In this painting, the Pope is depicted screaming yet his voice is “silenced” by the enclosed curtains and profound colors. Regrettably, Bacon himself was seldom satisfied with his work and was also prone to alcohol-fulled convulsions of ire wherein he’d destroy his canvases. This painting too became the victims of his despair.

Top Five Lost Artworks