“veetu was 50 years ago, well within the time frame you cite.”
No. It was found in 1994. Thus, it was not 50 years ago. It would have been only 30 years since Vatican II and NO ONE RECOGNIZED IT.
“The cathedral in my diocese chopped up the high altar and put it out as rubbish after the council.”
Well, that’s sad but it proves my point. You know what happened to your parish altar. Someone in 1994 would know what happened to this monstrance too - if it were disposed of only 30 years before.
“In another diocese it was chopped and used as parking separators.”
Again, that’s sad but all you’re doing is proving my point - you KNOW exactly what happened to that altar. Someone would know exactly what happened to this monstrance.
How in the heck could anyone recognize it? It’s been in storage for two decades.
It’s not like it was put on the back of milk cartons for twenty years.
I would suspect it was stolen years ago and dumped in the lake by the thief, who realized there was no way of selling it and it was of no value to him.
After Vatican II, I have seen things like this in dumpsters, set on the curb for trash pickup and in thrift stores, but that was pretty open and nobody was hiding their contempt for everything before 1965.
Somebody obviously wanted to get rid of this and not be seen doing it, so it wasn’t just a regular Vatican II “taking out the trash” (also known as the sacred vessels, the altar cloths, the vestments, the images...well, you get the general idea).