Lost Art: The Stories of Missing Masterpieces

by Noah Charney

Imagine a Museum of Lost Art. If this imaginary museum contained just the artwork we knew was lost— whether from theft, purposeful destruction, vandalism, war, or the forces of nature—it would still contain more masterpieces than those in all the world’s current museums combined. Imagine that!

In Lost Art: The Stories of Missing Masterpieces, art historian Noah Charney guides you through just such an imaginary museum. In 12 fascinating lectures accompanied by stunning graphics, you will hear the stories behind the theft and/or destruction of some of the world’s most famous pieces of art. From the 21st-century Taliban’s iconoclastic destruction of the 500-year-old Buddha Statues at Bamiyan to the earthquake that felled the Colossus of Rhodes in 226 BCE, no one knows how many great works of art have been destroyed or lost throughout history. Only very few have ever resurfaced.

In this course you will learn about dozens of pieces of art whose whereabout are completely unknown at this time, including:

• Paintings from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The biggest art heist in modern history occurred in Boston on March 18, 1990, when 13 paintings were stolen from the Gardner Museum. The FBI values the works by Vermeer and Manet, among others, at $500 million. Some believe the mafia was involved. The museum is still asking the public for leads.

• Nativity by Caravaggio. One of the most notorious and long-running unsolved thefts in 1969, this Caravaggio painting was stolen from the Oratory of Saint Lawrence in Palermo, Sicily, and it has continued to appear on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted Art list since. Current thinking is that the Sicilian mafia was behind the theft and still has possession of it.

• Hanging Gardens of Babylon. One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were noted for their architecture, engineering, and the beauty of the plants themselves. The only problem is that no one can find them, not even a reliable trace. Were they simply a matter of fantasy?

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Listening Length 5 hours and 59 minutes

Genres: Art, Audiobook, Nonfiction, History

6 pages, Audible Audio

Published August 11, 2023

About the author

Noah Charney holds degrees in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art and Cambridge University. He is the founding director of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA), the first international think tank on art crime. He divides his time between New Haven, Connecticut; Cambridge, England; and Rome, Italy.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a series I rushed to include in my year before it rotates out of the Audible Plus catalog, and it was very interesting and well worth my time. I heavily disagree with some of the lecturer's takes on the use of AI to restore or replicate lost art, though. AI 'learns' through the stolen art of past and current artists, and even with that can barely manage to replicate hands, let alone anything else. So why would anybody give that work to a computer rather than, you know, AN ACTUAL ARTIST? Possibly multiple artists, if you want to see different possibilities or iterations. Tech has a place in the art world - such as using decryption software to break cyphers, and I will never understand why people might cough up millions for a painting and not have it tested to at least make sure all the materials are correct for their time period - but NOT in using AI to restore or replicate art.

That said, however, this is a series I veryuch enjoyed and would recommend.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Nancie Lafferty]

DNF.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

1st 3 chapters are great, as that’s what I’m most interested in.