GHENT, Belgium (AP) – Take a close look, and a panel of the brilliantly restored lower half of the Ghent Altarpiece still has antique varnish, right next to the vivid color that came back to life in one of the most iconic works of Western art.
It looks older than the rest of the early 15th century work, but in reality the browner panel is a copy dated from the 1940s – and a reminder of one of the greatest unsolved art crimes of all time: theft of 1934 from the Just Judges panel, painted by the Flemish primitive Jan Van Eyck, whose works adorn the largest museums in the world.
The restorers did not want to give the copy the same transformation as other panels that have been cleaned so far.
“We chose to leave this patina, precisely to show people clearly that this is a copy, not the real Van Eyck,” said Canon Ludo Collin of Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent before the opening of a new visitor center this weekend. week.
The real righteous judges could be anywhere, and Ghent still has a prosecutor and two police investigators tasked with solving the crime almost a century later. And over the years, they have had the help – often unsolicited – from amateur detectives, from a former police commissioner to a taxi driver, a computer expert and the author of a children’s book.
Like the painting itself with its intricate details, bright light and religious subtleties, it is difficult to resist the history of crime.
Magistrate Caroline Dewitte says that just before the main suspect, Arsene Goedertier, died of a stroke half a year after the theft, he murmured: “Only I know where the panel is.” And then there is the mysterious complaint in the last of the 14 extortion letters, one never sent, in which Goedertier wrote that “The Righteous Judges are in a place where neither I nor anyone else can do this without attracting the public’s attention”.
To add to the mystery, the police who searched Goedertier’s office found a series of indecipherable drawings and strange acronyms that could be related to the theft. “It has tones of The Da Vinci Code,” said Dewitte.
In its long history, the Ghent Altarpiece was almost destroyed by iconoclasts in the 16th century, taken to Paris by horse and carriage after the French Revolution, sold to an art dealer, almost burned in the cathedral in 1822 and closed during the World War I to avoid German appropriation.
After the Righteous Judges survived all of this, what came to be quickly dubbed “the intrepid theft”.
The disappearance was discovered on the morning of April 11, 1934, and soon after, crowds flooded the Gothic cathedral, potentially destroying the main evidence that could have helped investigators.
“Think about what may have been lost in those precious first few hours,” said Dewitte.
Then the first letter arrived at the bishopric of Ghent, demanding 1 million francs, a large sum at the time, for the safe return of the panel, and threatening to destroy the work if the authorities did not cooperate. The extortionist even returned a small back panel that had also disappeared that night, to prove his credentials. Twelve more of these letters followed, and the 14th was found, not posted.
“It’s a case that makes people fantasize,” said Paul Drossens, the state archivist who now has the original police file under his care. In three large files, marked in red with “Never destroy”, it contains everything from the letters, the appeal to Scotland Yard for help and the 1935 public warning that “the prosecutor’s office is convinced that (the) panel it has not been destroyed and needs to be tracked in the country, mainly in Ghent and its surroundings. ”
Never was.
Since the great restoration effort at the 4.5 x 3.5 meter altarpiece started in 2012 – removing layers of old varnish and repainting to reveal Van Eyck’s brushstrokes – Dewitte said: “Somehow, I hoped this would lead to a breakthrough, because it is so sad that the original panel could not be part of it. It was not to be.”
Canon Collin still has some hope for what he affectionately calls “the Loch Ness Monster in our cathedral,” as it has been suggested that the panel may have been hidden somewhere within the huge Gothic building.
In any case, the authorities now want to ensure that all the remaining panels are perfectly protected against theft and moisture. If there is any downside to the new visitor center, it is the huge glass enclosure that keeps the public too far away for a close inspection of one of Europe’s greatest works of art.
“You are well protected against theft. But I won’t say how it works, ”said Collin. “One panel is sufficient.”
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Photojournalist Virginia Mayo and video journalist Mark Carlson contributed.