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I think "Missing" is a pretty poor choice of word for this; "Presumed lost to history" would better explain what's happened - Which is both incredible and terri

I think "Missing" is a pretty poor choice of word for this; "Presumed lost to history" would better explain what's happened - Which is both incredible and terribly dull at the same time! Somebody connected the dots on the provenance of a quite old painting that was venerated, but perhaps not as much as it should have been, not far from it's last known location - At least in distance, if not time. Great detective work, and far more interesting than if it'd been lost or stolen and people were looking for it - This was a piece that people knew existed, but nobody was looking for.

boomboomsubban 2y ago
edit I was wrong, in my defense I went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole of related topics.
- rtkwe 2y ago
  Is it? It was made for a tapestry maker but the wikipedia pages and a close look at them say they're paintings. Oil on panel like a lot of other paintings of the period. I think you're misreading "for tapestry maker Ralph Sheldon", he didn't paint them and the artist is not officially known. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_VIII_(1491%E2%80%931547)_-_WAR_WARSH_51.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_VIII_(1491%E2%...
addaon 2y ago
"Random" is also a pretty bad word for this. But hey, English is hard, and neither word usage impedes understanding of the article itself.
- mike-the-mikado 2y ago
  As in Random Access Memory? (I'm not sure of an application for memory that can only be accessed randomly).
  - GauntletWizard 2y ago
    It's not exactly random, but delay line memory[1] accesses are arbitrary with respect to where your program counter is or what youre trying to access- so the delay can appear "random" [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay-line_memory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay-line_memory
  - thaumasiotes 2y ago
    > I'm not sure of an application for memory that can only be accessed randomly As long as you can request all of it at once, it's useful.
s1artibartfast 2y ago
I dont know if it is fair to assume nobody was looking for it or wondering where it was. It is not uncommon in the art world for paintings to go missing, only to be found again. There are people that actively hunt for them, and don't just presume they are lost.
lazide 2y ago
I always read stuff like this as ‘someone hung it up at home and didn’t want random people bothering them about how it should be in a museum instead’. And/or stole it. Hah.
adolph 2y ago
It’s that fourth quadrant of “don’t know that you know.” I suppose that people in different fields are already using ambient or latent information from public websites for arbitrage opportunities. Glad it was a Sotheby’s provenanceer in this case rather than an art thief.
rurp 2y ago
> This was a piece that people knew existed How did people know it existed and hadn't been destroyed at some point if no one knew where it was for so many years?
- GauntletWizard 2y ago
  Existed is (can be) past tense. They knew it existed at one point and knew that they didn't know where it was or if it was now.

boomboomsubban 2y ago

edit I was wrong, in my defense I went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole of related topics.

rtkwe 2y ago
Is it? It was made for a tapestry maker but the wikipedia pages and a close look at them say they're paintings. Oil on panel like a lot of other paintings of the period. I think you're misreading "for tapestry maker Ralph Sheldon", he didn't paint them and the artist is not officially known. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_VIII_(1491%E2%80%931547)_-_WAR_WARSH_51.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_VIII_(1491%E2%...

addaon 2y ago

"Random" is also a pretty bad word for this. But hey, English is hard, and neither word usage impedes understanding of the article itself.

mike-the-mikado 2y ago
As in Random Access Memory? (I'm not sure of an application for memory that can only be accessed randomly).
- GauntletWizard 2y ago
  It's not exactly random, but delay line memory[1] accesses are arbitrary with respect to where your program counter is or what youre trying to access- so the delay can appear "random" [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay-line_memory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay-line_memory
- thaumasiotes 2y ago
  > I'm not sure of an application for memory that can only be accessed randomly As long as you can request all of it at once, it's useful.

s1artibartfast 2y ago

I dont know if it is fair to assume nobody was looking for it or wondering where it was. It is not uncommon in the art world for paintings to go missing, only to be found again. There are people that actively hunt for them, and don't just presume they are lost.

lazide 2y ago

I always read stuff like this as ‘someone hung it up at home and didn’t want random people bothering them about how it should be in a museum instead’. And/or stole it. Hah.

adolph 2y ago

It’s that fourth quadrant of “don’t know that you know.” I suppose that people in different fields are already using ambient or latent information from public websites for arbitrage opportunities. Glad it was a Sotheby’s provenanceer in this case rather than an art thief.

rurp 2y ago

> This was a piece that people knew existed How did people know it existed and hadn't been destroyed at some point if no one knew where it was for so many years?

GauntletWizard 2y ago
Existed is (can be) past tense. They knew it existed at one point and knew that they didn't know where it was or if it was now.