I am playing Skyrim, and one of my Hearthfire houses, Lakeview, has dealt me a small issue. For some time, my Enchanter's Tower was the home of my Staff of Magnus, hanging in the center slot of the upstairs weapon rack. Then, a few days ago, it disappeared. If I went back a few saves, it looked like it was partway into the wall. Did the game eat my staff? I know that Hearthfire makes some items magically acquire the Stolen tag; did my Steward see me putting it up on the wall, after trying to duplicate it (failed), and confiscate it? I checked the inventory of the Seward, the Housecarl, and my followers for the four days prior. I don't know where it went, or if it will ever magically reappear, laying on the floor (not under anything right now, that I can tell. Wonder what happened to it… Thanks anyone who has some ideas they share, and have a good one.
Sadly, I am playing on the PS3, so I can't use some of the console fixes, or what have you. I suspect that the bug, as it were, has claimed my staff. Also checked Morokei, just to see if it respawned on him, but nope, nor was it on the floor in the room I tried to drop it in, reclaim, and have duplicate; that works with many things. Fortunately, the Staff of Magnus isn't so important, so I guess I CAN tolerate its loss; it's just annoying that the other staff, and the Mace of Molag Bal, both stayed there fine, and the Staff of Magnus went "POOF!!!"
Best Answer
See the bugs listed on this wiki page. Apparently weapons can fall down, disappear, move etc using weapon racks.
Even a bigger problem, the staff of magus is a known bugged item on weapon racks.
If you are playing on the pc, there are some dodgy solutions, but they focus more on weapon racks that are not usable, not the disappearing weapons.
You could use the no clipping mode. (open console '~', type in 'tcl' close console). And walk through the walls to look for it.
Or you could spawn a new staff of magus using a console command. In the console type in 'player.additem ITEM "00035369"'. You should have a new staff of magus in your inventory. (00035369 is the item code for the staff)