The painting was thought to have been destroyed in the disastrous Tate Gallery flood of 1928 during the 1928 Thames flood, and was only rediscovered in 1973 by Tate Gallery curator Christopher Johnstone. He was writing a book on the British painter John Martin and going through the damaged canvases remaining from the flood in search of a missing painting by the artist. He found Martin's "The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum", albeit in very poor condition, rolled inside the Delaroche painting which was in perfect condition and transferred to the National Gallery where it should have gone when the national art collections were rationalised following the establishment of the Tate.