Here are 10 famous missing objects whose whereabouts remain unknown.

1. The Amber Room

The Amber Room was one of the most impressive rooms ever made. Its walls were covered with amber panels, gold details, and mirrors. The room was inside the Catherine Palace near St. Petersburg.

Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I gave the room to Peter the Great in 1716. It was finished in 1745. Then, during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, German soldiers took the room apart and moved the amber panels to Königsberg. They put the room back together there and displayed it in the city’s castle.

The panels were last seen in January 1945, when they were being packed for evacuation. Soon after, Königsberg was heavily damaged during the final months of the war. The original Amber Room was never found.

Many believe the panels were destroyed during the war, but there is no final proof of what happened to them. The room you can see at the Catherine Palace today is a reconstruction. The original is still missing.

2. The Missing Crown Jewels of Ireland

The Irish Crown Jewels weren’t actually a crown. They were the badges and insignia of the Order of St Patrick, including a jeweled star, badge, and collar.

On July 6, 1907, Sir Arthur Vicars discovered that the jewels were missing from a locked strongroom at Dublin Castle. They had last been seen on June 11. There were no obvious signs of a break-in, which made the theft even more puzzling.

How did someone get inside? Who had access? And how could such valuable objects disappear from Dublin Castle?

The investigation produced plenty of theories, but no definite answer. Several people were suspected, including people who had access to the castle, but no one was successfully prosecuted for stealing the jewels.

More than 100 years later, the Irish Crown Jewels have still not been found.

3. The Missing Panels of the Bayeux Tapestry

The Bayeux Tapestry tells the story of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. But there is a problem: part of it is missing.

The surviving embroidery ends with the death of Harold Godwinson and his English troops fleeing the battlefield. The original work almost certainly continued beyond that scene.

Nobody knows exactly how long the missing section was. Historians generally think it may have shown William the Conqueror’s coronation on Christmas Day in 1066.

By the time the tapestry was rediscovered in the 18th century, the ending was already gone. There is no known record of where it disappeared or what happened to it.

The missing section has never turned up. Modern embroiderers have created a possible ending, but that is only a reconstruction. The original medieval panels are still missing.

4. The Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant story comes from the Hebrew Bible, where it is described as a sacred chest containing the tablets of the Ten Commandments.

According to the biblical account, the Ark was kept in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem. But there is no confirmed historical record telling us what happened to it.

There are several stories about its disappearance. One tradition says that the Ark was taken to Ethiopia. Other theories connect its disappearance with the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem. Another possibility is that it was hidden somewhere beneath the ancient Temple.

5. A Louis XIV Boulle Commode from the Lock Collection

Some antiques disappear without a war, a theft, or a dramatic story behind them. They simply change hands and then drop out of sight.

One example is a Louis XIV-period Boulle commode associated with the Lock Collection. It is attributed to the workshop of André-Charles Boulle, the famous cabinetmaker who worked for Louis XIV. His furniture was known for its use of brass, tortoiseshell, and gilt-bronze decoration.

The commode reportedly appeared in the Lock Collection sale in London in the early 1970s. After its last recorded sale, however, the trail goes cold.

That is not unusual with valuable antique furniture. A painting may turn up in an exhibition or auction and attract attention. Furniture can be much harder to track. A private collector can buy a piece and keep it in a house or storage for decades without showing it publicly.

In this case, the available records are limited. We know the commode was recorded at one point, but its current location is unknown.

6. An 18th-Century French Commode from a Royal Collection

Furniture connected to the French royal family can be surprisingly easy to trace when it remains in a museum or major collection. Old inventories, auction records, makers’ marks, and records from royal residences can all help identify a piece.

But once an antique moves into private hands, things can get much harder.

That appears to be what happened here. The commode is recorded as missing, but there is no reliable public record showing where it is today or who owns it.

7. The Missing Adam Library Furniture from Kenwood House

Kenwood House in London was redesigned in the 18th century by architect Robert Adam. Its library became one of the best-known rooms in the house, and Adam designed much of its furniture as well.

When the contents of Kenwood were sold in 1922, some of the original furniture disappeared into the art market.

The Furniture History Society records five missing pieces designed by Adam and made by William France around 1768–70: a gilded scroll stool, two gilded sofas, and two pier tables.

Some of the furniture from Kenwood has since been found, but these five pieces have not.

8. A Richly Carved Dutch or Lower Rhine Hall Bench

This 18th-century oak hall bench is not as famous as the Amber Room or the Irish Crown Jewels, but its history is just as interesting.

The bench is heavily carved, with acanthus decorations and two snakes. It was bought from Amsterdam dealer Joseph M. Morpurgo in 1922.

During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the bench disappeared from the dealer’s inventory. Then, in December 1942, it suddenly turned up at a Weinmüller auction in Munich.

It was sold to a buyer identified as Bunzl. And then the trail ends.

9. Twelve 18th-Century French Gilded Chairs

A set of twelve 18th-century French gilded chairs also disappeared through the wartime art market.

The chairs were made of wood with gilded details and red flowered velvet. In May 1941, they were confiscated in Amsterdam. Later that year, they appeared at a Van Marle & Bignell auction in The Hague. After the auction, they disappeared from the record.

10. The Honjō Masamune

The Honjō Masamune was one of Japan’s most famous swords. It was made by the legendary swordsmith Masamune and had been passed down through the Tokugawa shogunate. The sword was designated a National Treasure in 1939.

After World War II, Tokugawa Iemasa surrendered the sword along with other family heirlooms. In January 1946, the swords were handed over at a Tokyo police station to an American serviceman. His name was recorded as “Coldy Bimore,” although the exact identity behind that name has never been firmly established. After that handover, the Honjō Masamune disappeared.

The sword has never been recovered, and the American serviceman who supposedly took possession of it has never been conclusively identified.