Edmonia Lewis’s 1876 marble sculpture The Death of Cleopatra was presumed lost for nearly a century. The Smithsonian American Art Museum says it was used as a racehorse’s grave marker before being found in a salvage yard.
Lewis portrayed the Egyptian queen after her death, still seated on a throne. The Smithsonian says this differed from the more idealized depictions of Cleopatra common in the 19th century. The sculpture drew attention at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.
After the exhibition, the sculpture disappeared from public view. According to the museum, it turned up in a Chicago saloon, then was acquired by racehorse owner John “Blind John” Condon, who used it as a marker for his horse, Cleopatra. It was later used as a target at a golf course and moved to a salvage yard during World War II.
In the 1980s, retired firefighter and scout leader Harold Adams noticed the work. His troop tried to clean and paint the marble, which later complicated its restoration. The sculpture entered the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection in 1994. The museum currently lists it as not on view.
Interest in Lewis’s legacy has grown again. The retrospective Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone is on view at the Georgia Museum of Art from Aug. 8, 2026, through Jan. 3, 2027, and will then travel to the North Carolina Museum of Art. The marble Death of Cleopatra is not listed among the exhibition’s works.