Originally part of the French Crown Jewels, sometimes considered its oldest part, and dating from the 7th century, the scepter of Dagobert was stored in the treasure of the Basilica of Saint-Denis (also known as Basilique royale de Saint-Denis) until 1795, when it disappeared, stolen in the basilica and never seen again. Its name comes from Dagobert I (629-639), the French king for whom it was supposedly created by master goldsmith Éloi de Noyon, better known as Saint Eligius.

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Treasure of the
Esperanza

During the 19th and 20th centuries, stories circulated in the Pacific of a large treasure of gold, silver and pre cious stones (sometimes described as Inca treasures) that had been looted in the Viceroyalty of Peru, in the Palmyra Atoll (one of the Northern Line Islands (southeast of Kingman Reef and north of Kiribati Line Islands), located almost due south of the Hawaiian Islands, roughly one-third of the way between Hawaii and American Samoa). A crew loaded it in secret onto the ship Esperanza in Callao harbor, Peru, and embarked into the Pacific Ocean on January 1, 1816 bound for the Spanish West Indies.

According to a survivor, seaman James Hines, the Esperanza was caught in a storm which dismasted and damaged the ship. Thus crippled, it was attacked and boarded by pirates, who loaded the treasure and surviving crew onto their own ship. The Esperanza sank, and they sailed west across the Pacific bound for Macao.

After 43 days, the pirates' ship met a storm, lost course, and struck hard the coral reef surrounding Palmyra Island, breaking the mast. The ninety men aboard were able to pull the ship in closer to land but it was not serviceable. They offloaded the treasure to the island, distributed some, and buried the rest. They repaired part of their boat and most of the crew shipped away. They were not heard from again. The remaining ten men spent most of a year on Palmyra living off of dwindling stores and local food. They spent three months building a small escape boat, and six men left Palmyra on the boat. Of these, four were washed overboard in a storm and the other two were rescued by an American whaler bound for San Francisco. One died en route, and the survivor, James Hines, was put in a hospital; 30 days later he died.

Before he died, he wrote letters describing the affair and the location of the treasure, which originally included 1.5 million Spanish pesos of gold and an equal value in silver (possibly consisting of precolumbian artworks).

In around 1903, over 95 years later, the letters were allegedly deposited for safekeeping with Capt. William R. Foster, the harbormaster of Honolulu, by a sailor who was bound for the Solomon Islands but never returned. After holding the letters for 20 years in an iron chest, Capt. Foster revealed them to a reporter who published the details.^[25] Palmyra landowner Henry E. Cooper was reported to have researched the matter. A conflicting variant of the story was published by Capt. F. D. Walker of Honolulu in 1903 and in 1914. In 1997, William A. Warren filed a federal salvage claim for a ship sunk off the atoll which he claimed had treasure from the Esperanza, but he abandoned his claim after legal objection from the Fullard-Leos, who owned most of Palmyra.

The legend of the Esperanza and Santa Rosa (a ship rumored to have recovered the Esperanza treasure and sailed back to Honolulu), inspired a story written by Jack London, called "The Proud Goat of Aloysius Pankburn", which was published as part of London's David Grief stories in the Saturday Evening Post.

The Esperanza treasure figures in a 2010 work of fiction, Palmyra – Isle of Death by Karl Boyd.

THE JUST JUDGES

The Just Judges or The Righteous Judges is the lower left panel of the Ghent Altarpiece, painted by Jan van Eyck or his brother Hubert Van Eyck between 1430–32. It is believed that the panel shows portraits of several contemporary figures such as Philip the Good, and possibly the artists Hubert and Jan van Eyck themselves. The panel was stolen in 1934 and has never been found.

Theft

The panel was displayed at the Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium together with the rest of the Ghent Altarpiece, until it was stolen during the night of 10 April 1934, possibly by the Belgian Arsène Goedertier (Lede, 23 December 1876 – Dendermonde, 25 November 1934). The day after the theft the commissioner of the Ghent police, Antoine Luysterborghs, was briefly present at the crime scene before leaving to investigate a theft at a nearby cheese shop.

The panel was removed from the frame, apparently with care, leaving the other panels undamaged. In the empty space was left a note, written in French, with the words, "Taken from Germany by the Treaty of Versaile", a reference to the fact that the altarpiece, having been removed to Berlin by German forces during World War I, had to be returned in accordance with Article 247 of the Treaty of Versailles. On 30 April, the Bishop of Ghent received a ransom demand for one million Belgian francs