The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1903-09-19
qREAsUREs LOST no VIEW.
Trophies Vast Would Nnrich ANY
ane Fortunate Enough e nElnB
Them 20 LiEht.

The greatest treasure 10 sculpture me
world has ever known Is imperfect and
the piece missing right arm-Would
bring the finder in 8 kings ransoms so
may be termed q treasure In Itself. This
arm, Of course, belongs to the Venus de
Milo now ID the Louvre ct Paris, and y
years g it turned up in England and
was proved by experts to be the genuine
Venus. The owner, however, refused %
mart with il, and concealed t-tsomeWheEs
lest it should be stolen by thieves. When
he died he left no record az to where
the arm was hidden, and fromtha day
to this its resting-place has remained
a mystery, says London Ttt-Btts.
Somewhere there is an old bronze
drinking cup which would easily realize
$780, 600 if put on the market L Is the
famous bronze bowl found in Egypt
century and a half ago, on which was
engraved the ancient history Of the
Pharaohs. 1t was stolen from an Egyp-
tian temple in 1889, and brought to
Europe. From that time it miraculously
disappeared. and 40 years later the
French government offered $4,000 for
its discovery, but the famous cup ha0
49,
vanished, in all probability forever.
Great pictures have an unhappy mack
OF disappearing, and lucky would Pc
the individual who am across Sir
Joshua Reynolds Countess OF Der
by" for it would realize $50O,OOO. This
was acknowledged to be Reynolds
greatest portrait, but not long after it
was painted it disappeared from the
earl Of Derby's collection, and has never
since been heard of. There was also
two Vandykes and a Rembrandt miss
ing for which the National gallery would
willingly pay 5000, 600, and no doubt the
earl of Crewe would give a four-fgure
reward to anyone who restored the
cupid cut by some vandal from the
picture Of a former countess OF CreWe
and her son, who was painted as the
little sprite.
Half a century ago the Italian gov
eminent offered $50, 900 to anyone who
would r~ediscover the F%lorentine chalice.
This is a goblet of green Venetian
glass. made in the sixteenth century for
the pope and engraved with a picture
of the resurrection. Its manufacture is
said to have occupied two years, and
the secret of the glass, which was thin
ner than paper, is lost. The cup was
stolen from the vatican, but no one
came forward to claim the offered re-
ward and the probabilities are that the
cup has been smashed.
A similar treasure, which vanished in
an equally strange manner, was the
Marsella vase of Dresden china. It is
the only piece of china missing FRONT the
/ famous Marsella collection, the value OF
which is set down as $75, 900, audit bears
. upon it the cross arrows and a lions
} head. A few years ago the vase was
said to be in the north Of England, and
. it is safe to assert that if anyone re-
) discovers it he can command a price
! running we'll into four figures.
I Probably in some lumber room in this
e country there is an old sword which, i
the owner only knew It, is worth a cou.
l. pie of thousand pounds. 1t was the STATE
sword presented by the nation to Ed.
d ward III, and at one time the hilt wal
d studded with large rubies, but these dis.
n appeared long before the weapon fol
lowed them into Obscurity some year
ago. Any one of our national museums
would purchase the sword for the sun
mentioned, while it is not unlikely tina
Il in a public ~auction-room the bidding
t. would rise even higher.