The Shuttle Kubrick Forgot to Destroy

Stanley Kubrick ordered virtually everything from 2001: A Space Odyssey — sets, costumes, props, models — destroyed after filming, so nothing could be recycled into lesser films. It worked almost completely, which is why so little of the most influential sci-fi film ever made survives.

Almost. The Aries 1B trans-lunar shuttle — the spherical Pan Am craft that carries Dr. Floyd to the Moon — escaped the purge. In 1975 it was given to an art teacher under an agreement that its electronics be removed and used to teach students about the technology. And there it stayed, out of sight, for four decades while the world assumed it was gone.

When it surfaced at a 2015 memorabilia auction, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences pounced, paying $344,000 — with 2001 effects legend Douglas Trumbull authenticating the model and Tom Hanks and Christopher Nolan reportedly backing the purchase. Museum conservators then spent three years restoring it, hunting flea markets and eBay for the same 1960s tank and submarine model kits whose parts had been grafted onto the original. It''s now a centerpiece of the Academy Museum.

The lo.st takeaway: The rarest artifact in this list survived because one transfer of custody happened to be remembered. Every item''s history is a chain of handoffs — and a chain is only as durable as its records. Make the record part of the item.