Lost Treasures That Have Never Been Found

[stevenphillips]

It would not surprise me if most of these lost treasures are in the hands of private collectors.

[paulsimmons]

My uncle was part of the occupation forces in Japan and returned with a katana that had been placed in a wooden scabbard for storage. The Japanese family’s name and address were written on the scabbard along with a wish that one day, it might be returned. The sword remained in my family until I met an Aikido master from Denver who read the inscription on the scabbard and managed to find the now quite elderly former owner who was still living at the family home. Arrangements were made and permission documents gathered and the sword was returned to the doctor. I later received a letter thanking me and a photo of him holding the sword in his garden. This was around 1983 or so and the doctor was in his upper 70’s, so I was glad that he lived to see his family sword returned. I’ve felt that this gesture has come back to me many times since. Hopefully, one day Japan’s treasured sword will be returned also!

[sakurakitsunestar]

Fun bonus fact : there was a lost treasure found recently!
it was a Roman bust that was stolen from Germany during world war II by American soldiers and it turned up at a goodwill ( thrift store) in Texas It's going to be displayed in an art museum here in the US for a year before being returned to Germany

[ShukenFlash]

I met a tendo instructor several years back who had found a different lost masamune sword. It was quite literally a barn find and head rusted a fair bit but once they cleaned it up they were astonished to find out what it was. They actually ended up meeting someone at a sword Expo years later who had the twin of their sword and refuse to believe that they had found its missing mate until they showed him a picture at which point all of the sword collector's at the Expo flipped out.

[cyrilio]

Edmund Hillary has always said his Sherpa actually reached the peak first.
No one knows if true or not but I find it a class act.

[ignitionfrn]

0:55 - Chapter 1 - The battle of anghiari
2:55 - Chapter 2 - Portrait of a young man
4:10 - Chapter 3 - The romanov's fabergé eggs
6:25 - Chapter 4 - Georges mallory lost camera
8:40 - Chapter 5 - Sappho's lost poems
11:00 - Chapter 6 - The honjo masamune

[dev-debug]

There was an article in Salon back in April by Mark Synnott who is a Mt. Everest climber/historian. It is now widely believed that the Chinese found the other climber in 1975 and the camera is supposed to be at a museum in China. I guess the Chinese tried to develop the film but it didn't come out. If true it's a shame the Chinese did not send it to Kodak since they are the leading experts developing old film.

Anyway you can read the article and draw your own conclusions. There is also an interview Mark did with a fellow Mt. Everest expert here on YT.

[matthewnield]

I'm big into the Mallory/Irvine expendiation, recently Mark Synott (who was on the 2019 expedition to find Irvine) and Thom Pollard (who was on the 99 expedition when the found Mallory and the 2019 expedition with Synott) talked about the camera recently. It's is now believed that the Chinese found Irvine's body near the summit, with the camera, they then pitched his body of the Lahotse face (as they didn't want any evidence that anyone had submitted from the Noth side before them) and took the camera back to China, where it is probably sitting in some government vault collecting dust. Mark wad suppose to go to China and talk to the people who run their mountaineering museum (where the camera supposedly is) but then 2020 gappen and China has been closed since...Thom Pollard has a youtibe channel where that discussion can be found, it's we worth a watch

[masterrafferty]

You should do a video on the fossil of the dinosaur Marapunisaurus which could have been the longest vertebrate that ever lived, but nobody can verify that because nobody has seen the bone in 150 years.

[Das_Beachy]

Who here would like to see Simon and Mr. Ballen do a collab on a strange, dark, and mysterious piece of history shared in story format?

[hepchaos]

The Honjo Masamune couldn't be sold legally for any amount of money. Both the U.S. and Japan have declared the sword a Japanese National Treasure, and if it is ever found, it must be returned to Japan as a gift. Japan may give a thank you gift in return, but it's not required.

[mhmt]

I believe Mallory did it. He was insanely driven, and if that attempt didn’t reach the summit, the party were leaving. There probably wouldn’t have been another expedition, and they were so close. I believe “Summit Fever” alone drove him to the top.

[JustKrista]

Thanks Simon and Co!
Sappho's poem... it's possible some got destroyed in Alexandria. It makes sense that fragments were found in Egypt.
I always think the paintings are adorning someone's wall. Hiding in plain sight. With so many mass produced prints made to replicate an era, they hang on the wall at Nana's house, overlooked as worthless old lady art.

[alanhindmarch]

I have always believed it was Mallory and Irvine who conquered Everest. I hope one day the camera is found and proves they were the first to get to Everests Summit.

[tankacebo]

that last one about the Honjo sword, pretty neat. myself, like many other Americans, had family that served in the Pacific. I have an heirloom blade from my grandfather that I've had looked over. the local museum I took it to told me it was from the 1830s, and the name in the tang was Tadasa Masaki. interestingly, it has a navy Anchor stamp on the tang too. I also have a Kai-Gunto Navy sword, an arsenal blade from 1945 with the same name in the tang. I don't know if gramps pilfered it from a Japanese officer whom did not need it anymore, or if it was gifted to him by a prize commission. my family often said that he was a peacekeeper after the war, but a peacekeeper doesn't hang himself by his tie in his closet when his kids are toddlers. I think he saw much more than he told anyone, over there.. as a peacekeeper in the late 40s doesn't come home with a couple real swords, a rifle, a flag, and a helmet.

[markjarrett]

How about King John's lost treasure. In 1216, King John was running from his enemies. When his army tried to cross the mudscapes of the Wash, a tidal estuary, rising waters caught his baggage train. The wagons and their contents, including the king’s treasure, were lost. They are still there!

[gungriffen]

Jesus Christ Simon needs a new channel like we need a second star in our solar system.

[prxZen]

It's really sad to think of how much of our past is lost. Artifacts, history, art, wars, atrocities, stories of greatness and exceptional cruelty and evil by all kinds of men and women... What has "just" been forgotten is one thing. But all that which has been intentionally destroyed - that... That's unforgivable. Lets do our best to not fall, in similar traps. To not clean up, hide or whitewash our history, art, literature.

[jackwest]

Just a heads up Simon, In japanese they do not use L, what you are seeing is an "i" not an L. So its pronounced Iemasa (ehe-ma-sa) (none of the E letters are saying their name so its the secondary sound.) Tokugawa is the family name and Iemasa is their given name or surname. cheers thanks for another interesting video.

[JacobAAllen]

Do a side project about the art Nazi stole and that was never recovered by the Monument Men or a video about the Monument Men who went into WW2 to save art.