GHENT, Belgium (AP): Take a good look, and a panel in the lower half of the brilliantly restored Ghent altarpiece still has old varnish, alongside the vivid coloring that has come back to life in one of the most emblematic works of Western art. .
It looks older than the rest of the early 15th century work, but in fact the brownest panel is a copy dating back to the 1940s and a reminder of one of the greatest unsolved artistic crimes of all time. : the robbery of the court of just judges of 1934, painted by the primitive flamenco Jan Van Eyck, whose works adorn the largest museums in the world.
The restorers did not want to give the copy the same makeover as other panels that have been cleaned so far.
“We chose to leave this patina on, precisely to show people clearly that this is a copy, not the real Van Eyck,” said Canon Ludo Collin of Saint Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent before the opening of ‘a new visitor center this weekend.
True fair 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 assistance (usually unsolicited) of amateur detectors ranging from a former police commissioner to a taxi driver, a computer expert and a children’s book author.
Like the painting itself with its intricate details, bright light, and religious subtleties, the crime story is hard to resist.
Magistrate Caroline Dewitte says that just before the main suspect, Arsene Goedertier, died of a stroke half a year after the robbery, she murmured, “Only I know where the panel is.” And then there is the mysterious statement of the last of the 14 extortion letters, never sent, in which Goedertier wrote that “Righteous judges are in a place where neither I nor anyone else can take it without attracting the public attention ”.
In addition to the mystery, police who searched Goedertier’s office found a series of hitherto indecipherable drawings and strange acronyms that could possibly be related to the robbery. “It has shadows of the Da Vinci Code,” Dewitte said.
In its long history, the Ghent altarpiece was almost destroyed by the iconoclasts in the 16th century, brought to Paris by horses and carriages after the French Revolution, sold to an art dealer, almost burned in the cathedral in 1822 and walled up. during World War I to prevent German appropriation.
After the Righteous Judges survived all this, came what was quickly called “the intrepid robbery.”
The disappearance was discovered on the morning of April 11, 1934, and shortly afterwards crowds of people were flooded into the Gothic cathedral, destroying key evidence that may have helped researchers.
“You just have to think about what might have been lost in those first precious hours,” Dewitte said.
Then the first letter reached the bishopric of Ghent, where a million francs were demanded, a huge sum at that time, for the safe return of the group, and which threatened to destroy the work if the authorities did not cooperate. The extortionist even returned a smaller back panel that had also disappeared that night, to prove his credentials. Twelve such letters followed and the 14th was found unpublished.
“It’s a case that makes people fantasize,” said Paul Drossens, the state archivist who is now in charge of the original police dossier. In three large files, marked in red with “Never Destroy”, it contains everything from the letters, the call to Scotland Yard for help and the 1935 public warning that the prosecution is convinced that (the) panel does not it was destroyed and needs to be tracked in the country and mainly in Ghent and its environs. “
It never was.
From the massive restoration effort at the 15-by-11-foot altarpiece begun in 2012 – stripping layers of old varnish and painting too much to reveal Van Eyck’s brushstroke – Dewitte said, “Somehow, I hoped it would lead to a breakthrough, because it’s so sad that the original panel could not be part of it. It was not “.
Canon Collin still holds some hope in what he lovingly calls “the monster of Loch Ness in our cathedral,” as it has been suggested that the panel may have been hidden somewhere inside the massive Gothic building.
In any case, the authorities now want to make sure that all the remaining panels are perfectly protected from theft and moisture. If there’s one downside to the new visitor center, it’s the glass-enclosed massif that keeps the public too far away to be able to closely inspect one of Europe’s largest works of art.
“She is well protected from theft. But I won’t say how it works, “said Collin. “One panel is enough.”
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Photojournalist Virginia Mayo and video game journalist Mark Carlson contributed.