The Ghent Polypticalso known as The adoration of the mystical lamb or the altar of Ghentit is a work created by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyckand completed in 1432 For the current Cathedral of San Bavón, in Gante, Flanders (today Belgium).
This huge work of approximately 4.4 x 3.5 meters of dimension had 12 oil painted tableswhich showed the public for the first time images that portrayed almost perfectly the real world. He is recognized worldwide as one of the most influential paintings ever made. Astonished and captivated in such a way the viewers of the time, who proclaimed it “The most beautiful work of Christianity”and Jan van Eyck (his brother died before completing him) was declared the prince of the painters.
Each figure in the work has its own expression; The skin, pores and hairs were painted individually, as well as every hair, wrinkle and vein. The plants are faithfully represented and in an altar the Lamb of God is dazzled, symbol of Christ’s sacrifice for humanity.
Almost 100 years later, the picture was already an excuse for many tourists to travel to the city to visit it. But, in 1566, a tragic period began. For almost Four centuriesthe piece was the target of multiple criminals and quickly became one of the most coveted around the world, transforming into a spot of war and winning the unfortunate distinction of being The most stolen work of art in history.
Threatened to be destroyed, confiscated by Napoleon’s troops, one of his panels disappeared and until today his whereabouts is a mystery, falsified, and taking the role of being a coveted treasure during World War II, the polyptic of people is One of the most representative paintings of flamenco that gave speak since its creation.
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A story of robberies that begins in 1566
The history of the misfortunes of the polyptic did not start strictly, but with a threat of its complete destruction. In 1566Protestant militants demolished the doors of the cathedral with the intention of Burn itsince they considered it an example of idolatry and excess Catholic. But, they were late and the work had already been disassembled and hidden In the building tower.
During the following centuries, it was several times War Botín. Historically, the largest art robberies were carried out by armies, which do not do it precisely for money, but for the desire to claim the art of an expired nation.
In 1794For example, The troops Napoleonic Invasters They took the Central Panel With the worship of the mystical lamb, which ended up exposed in the Louvre, in Paris, until the British defeated them in the battle of Waterloo (1815). Already back on his throne, Louis XVIII returned the pieces stolen to Gante in gratitude for having protected him and the polyptic returned to his place of origin, although not for long.
In 1816in circumstances not very clear, six panels of the altar wings were sold And they arrived at the hands of the King of Prussia in 1821, who passed them to the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum in Berlin, where they made each one a vertical cut in the middle. But in 1919, they were returned as a condition of the Treaty of Versailles.
Although, everything changed for the history of the work, when in the morning of the April 11, 1934two panels were stolen from the Cathedral of San Bavón. The one of The fair judges and that of San Juan Bautista They disappeared without a trace. Some passersby claim to have seen, during the night, two men dressed in black carrying something flat wrapped in cloth climbing to a car that awaited them and disappearing in the dark.
The righteous judges
And what follows after this bold robbery seems taken from a movie In the best Hollywood style, a suspense thriller. 19 days later, the bishop of Ghent received a rescue demand from one million Belgian francs (around 1 million dollars). Amount which the authorities refused to pay.
The bishop continued to negotiate and, with the third letter, a receipt came for the storage of something at a train station in Brussels: The San Juan Bautista panel. The next one contained a page of a torn newspaper and said that who was going to collect the rescue would appear before the father of one parish with the other half of the page as a sample of identity. If they gave him the required money, he would return the other piece.
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The authorities and members of the Cathedral followed the instructions, but only put in the envelope a room of the requested sum and the panel did not appear. The last letter arrived on October 1.
Weeks later, Arsène Goedertier 57, he suffered a heart attack. In his last days alive, he confessed to his lawyer that he was the only one who I knew where I was hidden The original panel of the fair judges. And his last words were: “Desk, key, closet, marked folder ‘Mutualité’“
The lawyer found coal copies of the cards asking for the rescue, in addition to an unrendered, with a track on the whereabouts of the stolen panel: “[está] In a place where neither I, nor anyone else, can take it without going unnoticed. “Thus, it was discovered that Goedertier had been the thief.
Following the criminal tracks, the San Bavón cathedral was checked from top to bottom six times since World War II. It was also thought that the replica painted in 1945, by the artist Jef Van Der Veken, was actually the original panel, but science found no. Thus, the whereabouts of the fair judges remains a without solving mystery.
Ghent’s polyptic, a coveted work during World War II
In 1940when the Nazis occupied Belgium, Adolf Hitler He ordered the painting to steal, but, the Belgian government decided to send the work to France to be sure. However, the German troops intercepted her when she was on her way to custody.
The work was exposed to a irreversible deteriorationsince they hid carefully with another 7,000 pieces of art in the high salt mine (Austria). It was saved from its total destruction thanks to some miners, and finally, rescued and restored by the MFAA Unit (by the acronym in English of the Monuments, Art and Archives program, known as Monuments Men).
Since 2010, the piece is being subject to a thorough analysis and restoration process, with support from the Getty Foundation in California. The first phase concluded in 2017 and allowed to restore the rear panels of the two doors. The second phase, completed in 2019, restored the lower ones.
Source: Ambito
