The Duryodhana is based on a tenth-century stone sculpture taken from Prasat Chen Temple, Cambodia, sometime in the 1970s. Its feet, attached to a pedestal and left behind, were later discovered and eventually helped lead authorities to the sculpture’s original location. After a convoluted global journey (not related to the fictional account in the book), the sculpture was returned—without its hands—to Cambodia in 2013. A Bhima sculpture was also taken from Prasat Chen Temple in the 1970s; after spending nearly four decades on display at a US museum, it was returned in 2014.

The mosaics were inspired by a rare and important cache of sixth-century Byzantine mosaics stripped from the apse of the Church of the Panagia Kanakaria, located in the village of Lythrangomi, in Northern Cyprus. The mosaics passed through the hands of a convicted smuggler and, among others, art dealers in Turkey, Switzerland, Greece, and the US. In 1991, after a prolonged US court battle, the mosaics were ultimately returned to Cyprus.

Weary Herakles is based on a second-century marble statue uncovered at an archaeological site in Perge, Turkey. The bottom section of the statue was found at the site; the top section ended up in the United States. After years of wrangling, the two halves were reunited in Turkey.

The emerald ring worn by Rochelle, the gold jewelry presented by Simon at the Mentor Society meeting, and the chess pieces painted by Rochelle are all based on real artifacts found in the wreck of the Mentor, one of the ships used by Lord Elgin to transport pieces of the Parthenon and other treasures from Greece to England in 1802. On its way to England, the Mentor sank near the island of Kythera, Greece. Lord Elgin mounted a salvage effort, and many artifacts were recovered. In 2016, marine archaeologists led another expedition to the wreck, which yielded more artifacts.

La Peregrina pearl necklace is a piece with the extraordinary true provenance described in the book, up to the fictitious sale to the fictitious Lord Stornoway. Provenances for the Wittelsbach Blue and Grand Mazarin diamonds are also real and worthy of a longer look.

The Peruvian coins Rochelle shows Marcos are inspired by real coins recovered from the wreck of the Spanish frigate Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, which sank off the Portuguese coast in 1804. In 2007, Odyssey Marine Exploration recovered roughly seventeen tons of silver and gold coins from the wreck; the hoard was estimated to be worth close to five hundred million euros at the time. A lawsuit ensued, and a federal court in the US ruled in 2013 that Spain was the rightful owner.

The Tiger Ying vessel is a three-thousand-year-old bronze vessel looted from Beijing’s Old Summer Palace by a British soldier during the Second Opium War in the mid nineteenth century. The vessel was ultimately sold at auction and donated by the buyer to the Chinese government.

The Lewis Chess Set in the Stornoway Castle library is based on a real chess set found in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. The pieces, made of walrus ivory and whale tooth, were believed to be created in the late twelfth century and buried on the island when it was still part of Norway. Some of the pieces are in the collection of the National Museum of Scotland; the majority are in the collection of the British Museum.

The Parthenon fragment displayed at Stornoway Castle is inspired by the many stone friezes and fragments taken from the Parthenon and brought to England by Lord Elgin at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Many of those fragments remain on display in a dedicated wing of the British Museum. Rights of ownership and possession of the Parthenon/Elgin Marbles have been an ongoing, high-profile dispute between Greece and England since shortly after the pieces were taken.