For decades, all that survived of Metropolis were an incomplete original negative and copies of shortened, re-edited release prints; over a quarter of the film was believed lost. However, in 2008 'ZEITmagazin' reported the discovery at the Buenos Aires Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken by film historian and collector Fernando Martín Peña of a 16mm dupe negative copy of the original full-length 35mm export print, which had been sent to Argentina in 1928.