The Gallery

Each exhibit is a window into what was lost — reconstructed through AI-assisted research and presented with the care of a museum placard.

140 exhibits in the collection

Hemingway's Lost Suitcase — exhibit imageText

Hemingway's Lost Suitcase

Ernest Hemingway

A valise containing virtually all of Ernest Hemingway's early manuscripts, including carbon copies and original typescripts of short stories, a novel-in-progress, and poetry. Lost at the Gare de Lyon in Paris.

Reconstruction Confidence70%

Lost December 1922

The Library of Alexandria — exhibit imageText

The Library of Alexandria

Ptolemy I Soter and Ptolemy II Philadelphus (founders)

The greatest repository of knowledge in the ancient world, holding an estimated 400,000 to 700,000 scrolls encompassing the collected works of Greek, Egyptian, Persian, Indian, and other civilisations. Associated with the Mouseion, a scholarly institution.

Reconstruction Confidence20%

Lost c. 270–640 AD (gradual decline)

The Battle of Anghiari — exhibit imageArt

The Battle of Anghiari

Leonardo da Vinci

A mural by Leonardo da Vinci commissioned for the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. The work depicted a pivotal moment from the 1440 Battle of Anghiari between Milan and Florence, focusing on a cavalry fight for a standard. Known through copies, most famously by Peter Paul Rubens.

Reconstruction Confidence50%

Lost c. 1563

Portrait of a Young Man (Raphael) — exhibit imageArt

Portrait of a Young Man (Raphael)

Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino)

An oil-on-panel painting attributed to Raphael, widely considered his finest portrait and possibly a self-portrait. The work depicted a young man against a dark background, wearing a fur-trimmed coat, with the subject's identity debated among scholars.

Reconstruction Confidence40%

Lost 1945

Colossus of Rhodes — exhibit imageArt

Colossus of Rhodes

Chares of Lindos

A monumental bronze statue of the sun god Helios, standing approximately 33 metres tall at the entrance to the harbour of Rhodes. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Reconstruction Confidence25%

Lost c. 226 BC

The Amber Room — exhibit imageArt

The Amber Room

Andreas Schlüter (design), Gottfried Wolfram and Ernst Schacht (craftsmanship)

A chamber decorated with six tonnes of amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors, originally installed in the Catherine Palace near Saint Petersburg. Often called the "Eighth Wonder of the World," the room was a masterwork of Baroque decorative art.

Reconstruction Confidence35%

Lost 1945

The Sapphire Necklace (Arthur Sullivan) — exhibit imageMusic

The Sapphire Necklace (Arthur Sullivan)

Arthur Sullivan

Arthur Sullivan's first opera, composed in 1863–1864 when he was 21 years old. The overture survives and is occasionally performed, but the vocal score, orchestral parts, and libretto of the opera itself are lost. Sullivan later achieved fame with W.S. Gilbert in the Savoy operas.

Reconstruction Confidence25%

Lost c. 1860s–1870s

Marin Marais — Lost Operas — exhibit imageMusic

Marin Marais — Lost Operas

Marin Marais

Of the four operas composed by the great French viol player and composer Marin Marais, only Alcyone (1706) and Ariane et Bachus (1696) survive in any form. His first opera Alcide (1693) and his last Sémélé (1709) are lost, leaving major gaps in our understanding of French Baroque operatic development.

Reconstruction Confidence20%

Lost c. 18th century

Moondog — Lost Street Performances and Recordings — exhibit imageMusic

Moondog — Lost Street Performances and Recordings

Moondog (Louis Thomas Hardin)

Decades of musical compositions and improvisations performed by the blind composer and musician Moondog (Louis Thomas Hardin) on the streets of New York City, primarily at his station on Sixth Avenue near 54th Street. While Moondog made studio recordings, the vast majority of his daily performances — hours of original music played on self-invented instruments — were never captured.

Reconstruction Confidence15%

Lost Ongoing (1947–1974 street period)

Clara Schumann — Piano Concerto in F minor — exhibit imageMusic

Clara Schumann — Piano Concerto in F minor

Clara Schumann (née Wieck)

An unfinished piano concerto begun by Clara Schumann in the 1840s, of which only sketches for the first movement survive. Clara, one of the foremost pianists of the 19th century and a composer in her own right, abandoned the work amid the pressures of concertising, child-rearing, and the expectation that women should not compose large-scale orchestral works.

Reconstruction Confidence35%

Lost c. 1847–1850s

Robert Johnson — Unrecorded Repertoire — exhibit imageMusic

Robert Johnson — Unrecorded Repertoire

Robert Johnson

The vast majority of Robert Johnson's musical output — the songs he performed live in juke joints, street corners, and plantation gatherings across the Mississippi Delta but never recorded. Only 29 songs (from two recording sessions in 1936–1937) survive. Musicians who heard him play described dozens of additional original compositions.

Reconstruction Confidence20%

Lost 16 August 1938

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk — Original 1934 Version (Shostakovich) — exhibit imageMusic

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk — Original 1934 Version (Shostakovich)

Dmitri Shostakovich

The original version of Dmitri Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District as premiered in 1934, before the composer extensively revised it under political pressure into the milder Katerina Izmailova (1963). The original scoring, orchestration, and several scenes differ substantially from the revision.

Reconstruction Confidence55%

Lost c. 1936–1963

Gallery — Vestige