This creative arts research project investigates contemporary material culture through a study of lost property collected at a number of New South Wales arts centres both before and after the advent of COVID-19. The focus on New South Wales arts centres was developed to provide a structure for the project that utilised existing network connections and resources. The nature of an object that is first lost and then found evokes and implies a complex series of associations related to memory and experience. This study suggests that with the application of museum practices or protocols and studio production, each separate collection of lost objects inherently develops its own taxonomy as a collection of artifacts. Significantly the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is measured by transformation in the symbolic register of these humble "lost property" objects when examined through a curatorial lens and with their material translation to the status of contemporary art.