6 Masterpieces Once Thought Lost That Have Finally Been Rediscovered

Throughout history, specific events such as the burning of the Library at Alexandria have led to the loss of many classical works of art, literature, and music. At times, these pieces disappear due to time, improper preservation, or intentional destruction. Yet, on rare occasions, they resurface in unexpected locations or under remarkable circumstances, much like the six examples shared here.

1. La Royale Maison de Savoie // Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas, the famed author of The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and numerous other beloved novels, was sometimes forced to write quickly in order to make money. Such was the case with La Royale Maison de Savoie (The Royal House of Savoy), a 2500-page serialized story first published in the magazine Le Constitutionnel in 1854. The work was so hastily composed that neither the National Library of France nor the Alexandre Dumas Museum had any knowledge of it. It wasn't until two historians stumbled upon it in a Turin, Italy, antique bookstore in 1998 that it came to light again; it has since been reissued in France.

2. Profile of a Young Fiancée // Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci

This chalk and ink portrait of a young woman in Renaissance attire was originally believed to have been created by an unknown artist, likely in Germany in the 19th century. In 1998, Profile of a Young Fiancée sold for a remarkable $21,850 at a Christie’s New York auction. Over the next decade, experts, including Nicholas Turner, former curator of drawings at the J. Paul Getty Museum, examined the piece and concluded that the portrait was likely created by Leonardo da Vinci around 1485, possibly depicting the Milanese noblewoman Bianca Maria Sforza. The attribution to Leonardo remains debated, but if it is indeed a genuine work of his, its value today could exceed $100 million.

3. “War Thoughts at Home” // Robert Frost

This 35-line poem by Robert Frost remained a secret, known only to his friend Frederic Melcher, a book dealer, until 2006—88 years after its creation. Melcher donated his collection of Frost’s letters and books to the University of Virginia, but they hadn’t been cataloged when Robert Stilling, a graduate student, stumbled upon them. While browsing the collection, Stilling discovered a 1947 letter mentioning an unpublished poem by Frost. Intrigued, Stilling began searching further and soon found “War Thoughts at Home” written inside a copy of Frost’s 1914 book North of Boston, an inscription that Melcher had previously dismissed as “not important” in a letter to a museum asking for noteworthy items.

4. Trio in E Flat Major // Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven composed this untitled work for violin, viola, and cello in 1792, later rearranging it for piano, violin, and cello around eight years afterward. With only the first movement and 43 measures of the second movement completed, the project was left unfinished and remained lost for over 100 years. German musicologist Willy Hess published the manuscript in a scholarly review in 1920, but it went largely unnoticed by working musicians. The first known performance of the 12-minute composition occurred on March 1, 2009—almost 182 years after Beethoven's death. For this performance, the Beethoven Project Trio played on a 1703 Stradivarius violin and a 1739 Guarnerius cello, both made long before Beethoven’s birth in 1770.

5. With Custer on the Little Bighorn // William O. Taylor

William Othniel Taylor was a member of the cavalry detachment serving under Major Marcus Reno during the infamous Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876. He participated in the initial assault on the Lakota and Cheyenne camp along the Little Bighorn River and survived the devastating defeat of George Armstrong Custer’s forces three days later.

Taylor wrote his personal account of the battle around 1917, six years before his death, and stored it in a metal box, which his wife later gave to her niece in Connecticut. The manuscript eventually became part of a museum's archives and was auctioned off in the mid-1990s. Editor Greg Martin purchased the manuscript and published it for the first time in 1996.

6. Panels from Struggle: From the History of the American People // Jacob Lawrence

After being acquired by a private collector, this 30-panel narrative piece by Jacob Lawrence, the preeminent Black modernist artist of the 20th century, was auctioned off piece by piece in the 1960s. The fate of many of the panels remained unknown for years, until a 2020 exhibition of Lawrence's work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York reignited interest in the artwork. A museum visitor made a shocking discovery: she believed she had seen one of the missing panels hanging on the wall of her elderly neighbor’s living room. Experts confirmed that it was the long-lost Panel 16, illustrating the Revolutionary War-era Shays’ Rebellion; the owners had purchased it at a neighborhood charity auction in 1960.

Incredibly, the revelation of that panel led to another discovery. A nurse from the Upper West Side, upon reading about the rediscovery of Panel 16, realized that a painting hanging in her dining room for 20 years, a gift from her mother-in-law, looked very similar. Experts later determined that it was the missing Panel 28, depicting immigrants coming to America, a piece titled The Emigrants — 1821-1830 (106,308) by Lawrence. Three more panels from the 30-part Struggle series are still unaccounted for.