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| David des Granges Locket (front) containing miniature portrait of Sir Bevil Grenville ca. 1635-40 enameled-gold, sapphire, ruby, opal, diamond, pearl British Museum |
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| David des Granges Locket (back) containing miniature portrait of Sir Bevil Grenville ca. 1635-40 enameled-gold, sapphire, ruby, opal, diamond, pearl British Museum |
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| David des Granges Locket (open) with miniature portrait of Sir Bevil Grenville ca. 1635-40 pigment on vellum British Museum |
Sir Bevil Grenville was killed in the English Civil War while leading a troop of Cornish pikemen at the battle of Lansdown in 1643. Naturally enough, the bejeweled locket with his picture in it became a sacred heirloom in his family, bequeathed in the fullness of time to the British Museum. Countless tiny precious artifacts from the past have similarly come to rest within the vaults of modern institutions, but such safety as they now enjoy can only ever be a relative form of safety. No institution in all of history has remained stable enough over the span of the passing centuries to prevent periods of plunder and dispersal. Other candidates for future barbarian appropriation appear below.
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| Giovanni Bernardi Intaglio - Continence of Scipio 16th century sard British Museum |
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| Giovanni Bernardi Intaglio - Abduction of Helen 16th century chalcedony British Museum |
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| Giuseppe Girometti Cameo - Alexander I & Empress Elizaveta Alexeyevna ca. 1816 sardonyx Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| David Le Marchand Portrait-relief of Thomas Brodrick ca. 1714-26 ivory British Museum |
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| Anonymous Italian sculptor Two-sided Plaquette - Helen and Paris 15th century bronze British Museum |
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| Anonymous Italian sculptor Two-sided Plaquette - Helen and Paris 15th century bronze British Museum |
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| Nathaniel Marchant Intaglio - Portrait of William Windham 1794 carnelian British Museum |
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| Nathaniel Marchant Intaglio - Portrait of George John, 2nd Earl Spencer 1781 carnelian British Museum |
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| Nathaniel Marchant Intaglio - Achilles mourning Patroclus (based on pseudo-antique gem) late 18th century plaster cast of sard original lost in the Blitz, 1941 British Museum |
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| Nathaniel Marchant Intaglio - Bacchus and Ariadne (based on Herculaneum relief-sculpture) late 18th century plaster cast of sard original lost in the Blitz, 1941 British Museum |
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| Thomas Rawlins Engraved portrait-medallion of Charles I ca. 1640-70 silver Victoria & Albert Museum, London |