Some of the world's most priceless artifacts have been lost in war, buried and then forgotten, or simply misplaced without explanation. Many have been missing so long they have transformed from treasure to legend to rumor. Some have made it to the black market. Some have been stowed away in private collections. Some are believed to have been destroyed completely.
世界上一些无价的工艺品有的已经在战争中遗失，有的被黄沙掩埋慢慢被人所遗忘，有的只是单纯地被误放了位置却连只言片语的解释也没有。很多宝藏由于遗失太久，慢慢的人们就把它当成了传说。有的人把它拿到黑市贩卖，有的人把它纳为私人收藏，有的人则相信它是彻底毁灭了。

10.The Wright Brothers' Patent
10.莱特兄弟的专利

The National Archives store some of history's most prized and rarest documents. Security is tight in the most important anthropological storehouses in the world, yet this hasn't stopped thieves from making off with some of its priceless pieces.
国家档案室里储藏着一些历史珍贵文件。安全部门牢牢看管着这些珍惜文件，却依然阻止不了窃贼盗走一些零星文件。
The patent papers that describe in detail Wilbur and Orville Wright's concept for a flying machine were lifted by an unknown crook without anyone noticing. Not until 2003 did anyone discover that it was missing, and since then, no one has been able to apprehend the culprit. Thefts at the Archives have become so common that an armed task force has been assigned to track down the missing pieces. The photos taken by astronauts during the Moon landing have been recovered, as have the audio tapes from the Hindenburg crash. But until someone tries to auction off hand-drawn airplane sketches from the early 1900s, we may never know where the patent papers took off to.
一个不知名的坏蛋悄无声息盗走了莱特兄弟的专利文件，上面详细记载了莱特兄弟写的关于飞行器的概念。直到2003年人们才发现它丢失了，从那以后，也没有人能抓住那个窃贼了。由于档案室频繁出现盗贼，于是专门派遣了一只武装工作队追踪丢失的文件。宇航员在登陆月球照的照片和兴登堡号坠毁的录音磁带都已经被找回。但是如果不是在20世纪初，有人试图拍卖手绘飞机草图，我们永远也不会知道这个专利文件去哪儿了。

9.Tanto Mei-Kunimitsu
9.国光短刀

Stolen national treasures is not a purely US problem. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan, 109 items marked as national treasures or important artifacts have gone missing from their collection. The pieces were being kept by private owners, which makes it impossible for the agency to keep track of their whereabouts.
盗窃国宝的现象不止发生在美国。据日本文化厅统计，他们保管的国宝，包括重要的史前古器物已经丢失了109件。因为私人收藏家收藏了这些珍宝，导致日本文化厅也不知其下落。
Of the listed items, 52 swords, 17 sculptures, and 10 paintings cannot be located. The report says that either they were stolen, the owners had moved, or no one had kept track of the items after an owner died. In the missing collection is a 13th-century tanto sword signed "Kunimitsu." The owner died, and the agency was not notified when the item became a very highly valued inheritance. As with so many pieces of its kind, the agency believes the owners are not aware of the policies in place to manage its location. They plan to start visiting the remaining owners on a regular basis to keep tabs on their whereabouts.
列出的52把刀剑，17座雕塑，10幅名画皆不知去向。据报道，这些珍宝要么是被偷了后私人转移藏了起来，要么就是私人拥有者死了后无人能探知其行踪。失踪的宝物是13世纪的一把刻有"国光"字样的短刀。由于宝物持有者去世了，所以文化厅不能确定这件宝物是什么时候成了价值连城的遗产。文化厅计划开始时不时拜访剩下的宝物持有者，随时注意国宝的行踪。

8.City Of Paititi
8.失落之城－帕依提提

Many legends surrounds the lost city of Paititi. It is said to be the location where the ancient Incas, desperate to hide their treasure from marauding Europeans, stored all of their gold. Due to its location and relative obscurity, the city gradually became synonymous with the legendary El Dorado. The two eventually became one mythical location where one lucky explorer could find endless riches.
关于这座消失的帕依提提古城有很多传说。传说这儿居住着古印加人，他们千方百计地隐藏从欧洲掠夺而来的珠宝，把所有的黄金都储存起来。由于这座城市的地理位置偏僻，并且相对默默无闻，所以人们逐渐认为它和传说的"黄金国"（西班牙文：El Dorado）是同一座城市。这两座城市最终变成了一个神秘的地方，哪个幸运儿一旦发现就能获得无尽财富的国度。
Explorers have been searching the jungle of Peru, mesmerized by the potential of the lost treasure. There are many settlements in the region that are remote, where explorers have found clues that they believe will lead them to their prize. Whether Paititi is simply another version of El Dorado or a real city in its own right—or if either of the two are real at all—remains to be seen.
探险家们对能在秘鲁的丛林里发现这个宝藏十分入迷，于是他们翻遍了秘鲁的丛林。那个偏僻的地区有很多定居点，在那儿他们发现了些蛛丝马迹，并且认为这些蛛丝马迹能引导他们找到战利品。到底帕依提提就是传说中的黄金国，还是它本身就是一座真实的城市？这两个说法哪个是真的还有待观察。

7.Patiala Necklace
7.帕夏拉项链

The Patiala Necklace was an item of rare beauty, designed by the house of Cartier in 1928. This gift to the Maharaja Sir Bhupinder Singh had five rows of platinum chains adorned with 2,930 diamonds. It was encrusted with Burmese rubies among other jewels. The centerpiece was the seventh-largest diamond in the world, the famed DeBeers Diamond, a 234.6-carat yellow diamond, roughly the size of a golf ball. The necklace was the prize piece until it disappeared in 1948. The last person known to wear it was his son Maharaja Yadavindra Singh.
帕夏拉项链稀有华美，由卡地亚于1928年设计。这条项链是赠给印度帕夏拉王公布品达辛（Bhupinder Singh）的礼物，它是由5条白金项链排列而成，镶嵌的钻石多达2930颗。它的外层镶嵌着缅甸红宝石和其他种类的宝石，中心装饰着世界第七大钻石——著名的戴比尔斯钻石（一颗重达234.6克拉的黄钻，大约有一颗高尔夫球大小）。这条项链是作为奖品而存在的，直到1984年它消失了。最后一个佩戴它的人是王公布品达辛的儿子亚达维达王公。
The necklace itself was recovered by a Cartier representative in London over 50 years later, but it was missing its most impressive jewels. Among them were the Burmese rubies and the DeBeers diamond. Cartier restored the necklace as best they could, using cubic zirconium and other less expensive gems. The original, which is believed to have been dismantled and sold by the Maharaja's family members, would be worth $20–30 million today.
50年后，一位卡地亚代表人在伦敦重新找回了这条项链，但它最引人注目的宝石却消失不见。其中就包括缅甸红宝石和戴比尔斯钻石。卡地亚竭尽所能修复了这条项链，用方晶锆石代替钻石，不太昂贵的宝石代替原来的真宝石。相信如果现在王公的家族成员把这条项链修复的部分拆除了，然后卖出去，也能值2-3千万美元。

6.The Mahogany Ship
6.红木船

When a ship sinks miles off the coast with virtually no way for searchers to reach the bottom of the ocean, it can take decades or even centuries to find the wreck, if it's found at all. The Mahogany Ship, however, is a complete different story. It isn't miles out to sea, it's not at the bottom of the ocean, and it's not between a set of iffy coordinates that take precise measurements to calculate. It is, in fact, in the harbor, beneath the sand dunes in southwest Victoria, Australia.
如果一条船沉没于距海岸数英里处，实际上搜寻者是没有办法到达海底的，这要花上几十年甚至几世纪才能找到它的残骸。然而这艘船却是完全不同的情况，它不是沉没于数英里开外的海里、也不是沉没于海底、更不是沉没于无法测量的坐标中。事实上，我们在澳大利亚的维多利亚港西南部一个沙丘下发现了这艘红木船。
The legendary ship was made of dark wood, speculated to be mahogany (but probably a different material altogether). It's said to have sunk as part of a secret Portuguese mission to explore Australia in 1522. The wreck was allegedly spotted almost 350 years later, in 1847, before people lost track of it altogether. All the details are conjecture based on accounts by whalers and locals over 150 years ago. Though no one has managed to prove its existence, no one can disprove it, so the mystery endures to this day. Believers in the tale say that Captain Cook's HMS Endeavour, supposedly the first European ship to reach Australia, was not the first ship of its kind to make landfall on the remote island nation.
这艘神奇的船由乌木建造而成，推断应该是红木（但也可能是另外一种材料）。据说这艘船是在1552年执行葡萄牙探索澳大利亚的一次秘密任务中沉没。又据说在人们失去这艘船消息的350多年后，在1847年，发现了它的船骸。所有关于这艘红木船的消息也都是从大约150年前的捕鲸人和当地人口口相传而来。尽管没人能证实它的存在，却也无人可以反驳，因此，关于红木船的秘密也延续至今。一些信徒说库克船长的三桅纵帆战舰"奋进号"虽然可能是第一艘到达澳大利亚的欧洲船，但却不是第一艘到达遥远岛国的船，因此，这艘红木船应该不是库克船长的奋进号。

翻译:bansu 来源：前十网