Several days back, I began a post about art theft by saying that it boggles the mind in general. I just learned something even more startling — the identity of the most stolen work of art in recorded history.
The subject came up in a talk given last week (which I just learned about) at Yale University by art historian Noah Charney (right). Last spring, he taught a course there called “Art Crime,” according to the Yale Daily News, and on Nov. 12, he gave a lecture entitled “Stealing the Mystic Lamb: A True Story of the World’s Most Frequently Stolen Masterpiece.”
In a different article, published on Oct. 26, Charney told The New Criminologist:
It was involved in 13 crimes over its 600-year lifespan, including seven separate thefts, culminating in its theft to be the centerpiece of Hitler’s planned Supermuseum during the Second World War. It was an incredible, unlikely rescue, thanks to a team of Monuments Men, a fortuitous toothache, and the courage of an Austrian double-agent. Sounds like a film preview, but it’s all true.
Can you guess what the work is? Think before you continue reading…
It’s the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyk. It weighs more than two tons and measures 14.5 by 11 feet, again according to the Yale newspaper. It has 12 panels, and is probably fragile. Charney calls it “the single most desired artwork of all time,” and added that anything bad that can happen to a painting has happened to it.
Charney co-founded the Association for Research Into Crimes Against Art, and has written “The Art Thieft,” a novel (which didn’t set the world on fire). He has had some publicity (here and here, to name two), but I suspect we’ll all be hearing more about him.
Here’s a link to the Yale article, here’s one to the New Criminologist piece, and here’s a look at the back of the altarpiece.
An amazing story on many levels.