10 Incredible Things Mankind Has Managed To Lose
6. Caravaggio's Nativity With St Francis And St Lawrence
Caravaggio was a notably insane personality of the Italian Renaissance, and is thought to have murdered a dude over a game of tennis. He was also an amazing artist and his realistic yet highly emotive style graces the walls of galleries and rich peoples' houses the world over.
One Caravaggio that isn't gracing anything, except maybe a Mafia don's bank vault, is his masterpiece of the Nativity. This painting, with its authentically knackered-looking Mary, was razored out of its frame in 1969 and never seen again. Its theft from the San Lorenzo Oratory in Palermo, Italy, was almost certainly orchestrated by organised crime.
Who stole it, why, where it is now and whether the law-abiding world is ever going to get it back are all unknown. It's not the only work of art missing, of course, and the weird thing is just how many presumably easily-recognisable paintings have vanished, including a pair of Van Goghs, a Cezanne, and a Renoir among many, many others.