While they're not as good as my cat bone floodgate (see my sig), I've got 2 good artifacts from a 2D retro-fortress:
Ustosthimshur Othôsorrun Anist, Angrypartners the Wilted Roars of Ignition, a horse bone statue
Basic Value: 11400☼
This is a horse bone statue. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. It is decorated with horse bone, Highwood and horse leather. This object menaces with spikes of horse bone.
On the item is an image of Rimtar Manorpaddled the dwarf in cave lobster shell. Rimtar Manorpaddled is melting. The artwork relates to the burning of Rimtar Manorpaddled in magma in Lenstyphoon in the midspring of 1062.
On the item is an image of humans and dwarves in Granite. The humans are speaking with the dwarves. The artwork relates to the visit of merchants from The Intricate Confederations to The Heroic Pages of Extrication at Lenstyphoon in the mudsummer of 1064.
Aranoshoshkurol, The Sculpted Hermitic Embrace, a goblin bone shield
Basic Value: 100200☼
This is a goblin bone shield. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. It is studded with gold, decorated with goblin bone and encircled with bands of green glass, Sapphire, and Rose quartz. This object menaces with spikes of bronze.
On the item is an image of humans and dwarves in horse bone. The humans are speaking with the dwarves. The artwork relates to the visit of merchants from The Intricate Confederations to The Heroic Pages of Extrication at Lenstyphoon in the mudsummer of 1058.
Unfortunately, I can't place the statue in my dining hall or give the shield to one of my soldiers, since dwarves carry around their artifacts pretty much forever - the shield was made by a craftsdwarf who is also one of my main farmers (and thus doesn't belong in the military), and the statue was made by a child.
In case you're wondering why the statue is decorated with Highwood, it's because I modded the raws to include the tree types from 40d. Detailed history information was made visible via some precise hex-editing of dwarfort.exe (since the 2D version predates the SHOW_ALL_HISTORY_IN_DWARF_MODE init option by quite a while).