They may have had a replica of the Ark. According to Josephus during the Greek period Manasseh, the brother of Jaddua the high priest had married Nicaso, a foreign woman. The priests demanded that Manasseh divorce his wife or not approach the altar. Vendyl Jones thinks he has found the resting place of the Ark in a cave by the Dead Sea near Qumran. He claims the Copper Scroll tells the location of the Ark, but his translation of the Copper Scroll is very questionable.
Scholars translate it differently.
When He dung in the cave, no Ark was found. Tom Croster claims he has found the Ark in a cave on Mt. Nebo where Jeremiah hid it. He was guided by the work of Antonia Frederick Futterer who searched for the Ark in the 1920's. With Futterer's sketch Tom Croster left for Jordan in October 1981. On Mt. Pisgah Tom found an opening that led to a passageway that led to what he thinks was the Ark of the Covenant.