Whatifs › Stories, updated 12 October 2026

Real lost paintings: seven masterpieces that vanished

Some of the most famous paintings in the world are missing for real. Caravaggio’s Nativity has been gone since 1969, Vermeer’s The Concert since 1990, and Klimt’s Faculty Paintings burned in 1945; only a few, like Klimt’s Portrait of a Lady, ever came back.

Whatifs › Articles, updated 12 October 2026

Every Whatif starts from an invented rediscovery. The real history of art is full of the opposite: works that were known, photographed, sometimes famous, and then disappeared. Here are seven of them, with what we actually know.

1. Caravaggio, Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence (stolen 1969)

In October 1969 thieves cut this large altarpiece out of its frame in the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo. It has never been seen again. The case is often linked to the Sicilian Mafia, and the painting has long featured on the FBI’s list of the top art crimes. A high-resolution replica now hangs in its place in the oratory.

2. Vermeer, The Concert (stolen 1990)

On 18 March 1990, two men dressed as police officers talked their way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and left with thirteen works. Among them were Vermeer’s The Concert and Rembrandt’s The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, his only known seascape. The museum still offers a reward of 10 million dollars for information leading to their recovery, and the empty frames still hang on the walls.

3. Raphael, Portrait of a Young Man (missing since 1945)

Part of the Czartoryski collection in Kraków, the portrait was seized during the German occupation of Poland and has been missing since the end of the Second World War. Poland considers it one of the most important works of art it lost in the war. Every few years a rumour places it in a bank vault or a private collection; none has been confirmed.

4. Klimt, the Faculty Paintings (burned 1945)

Gustav Klimt painted three huge ceiling panels for the University of Vienna, Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence. Judged scandalous at the time, they ended up in private hands and were stored, with other works, at Schloss Immendorf in Austria. The castle burned in May 1945 and the paintings were destroyed. They survive only through black-and-white photographs and one colour detail.

5. Courbet, The Stone Breakers (destroyed 1945)

Gustave Courbet’s two road workers, one of the founding images of Realism, belonged to the Dresden collections. The canvas was destroyed in 1945, during the last months of the war, along with other works being moved for safekeeping. We know it from photographs and from Courbet’s own descriptions.

6. Van Gogh, Poppy Flowers (stolen 1977 and 2010)

This small still life has been stolen twice from the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo. After the first theft in 1977 it was recovered; after the second, in August 2010, it has not been found. The investigation pointed at failing alarms and cameras rather than at an elaborate plan.

7. The one that came back: Klimt, Portrait of a Lady

Stolen in 1997 from the Ricci Oddi gallery in Piacenza, the portrait was found in December 2019 by gardeners clearing ivy from the gallery’s outer wall. It was inside a small metal door, wrapped in a bag, a few metres from where it had disappeared. Experts confirmed it was the original. Its story is closer to a Whatif than most fiction.

How do we know what lost paintings looked like?

Through the traces they left: photographs taken by museums or dealers before the loss, engravings and copies, inventory entries, letters and catalogues. For the Faculty Paintings, photographs are almost all that remains; for the Gardner works, the museum had high-quality images. When a "rediscovered" painting appears online with no such trail, be careful: our guide on spotting an AI "lost masterpiece" explains what to check.

For the other side of the story, real paintings that resurfaced in kitchens and attics, read masterpieces found in attics and kitchens.

See today’s painting that never was

Frequently asked questions

What is the most famous stolen painting never recovered?

Vermeer’s The Concert, stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990, is often described as the most valuable stolen painting still missing. Caravaggio’s Nativity, stolen in Palermo in 1969, is another.

Are lost paintings ever found?

Sometimes. Klimt’s Portrait of a Lady, stolen in 1997, was found in 2019 hidden in the outer wall of the gallery it was stolen from.

Are the paintings on Whatifs lost paintings?

No. Whatifs paintings never existed: they are AI-generated fiction, clearly labelled on every page.

Sources: Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence, Wikipedia ; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft, Wikipedia ; Portrait of a Young Man (Raphael), Wikipedia ; Faculty Paintings, Wikipedia ; The Stone Breakers, Wikipedia ; Poppy Flowers, Wikipedia ; Portrait of a Lady (Klimt), Wikipedia.

Read next

• How to spot an AI “lost masterpiece”
• The most expensive paintings ever sold
• Masterpieces found in attics and kitchens