Case file · Folklore / legend
The vanished Cross of Saint Euphrosyne
The jewelled cross made in 1161 for Euphrosyne of Polotsk, Belarus's greatest relic, disappeared from a museum vault in Mogilev in the summer of 1941, as the German army approached.
1941 CE · 53.89, 30.33 · status: unexplained
The account
The cross carried an inscription cursing anyone who removed it from the convent; folklore links its loss to that curse. Searches in Belarus, Russia and the West, and rumours that it reached a private collection in America, have produced nothing. A replica was made in 1997.
The sceptical view
Lost in wartime chaos, possibly hidden or stolen by Soviet officials or German troops; no supernatural element is needed.