Stealing the Mystic Lamb
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"Kirkus," July 15, 2010
"Charney unsnarls the tangled history of Jan van Eyck's 15th-century" The Ghent Altarpiece "(aka "The Mystic Lamb"), 'the most desired and victimized object of all time.' With a novelist's sense of structure and tension, the author adds an easy familiarity with the techniques of oil painting and with the intertwining vines of art and political and religious history.... A brisk tale of true-life heroism, villainy, artistry and passion."
"Christian Science Monitor," August 30, 2010
"[A]ction-packed.... In scrupulous detail, Charney divulges the secrets of the revered painting's past, and in doing so, gives readers a history lesson on art crime, a still-prospering black market." "Cleveland Plain Dealer," October 14, 2010
"Well-written and thorough, this book reminds us of the influence and fragility of art, our veniality and heroism, and the delights found in both the beautiful and the strange." "Maclean's," October 14, 2010
"In Charney's hand
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This is the gripping story of the world's most coveted and most frequently stolen art treasure that reveals the underworld of criminal art dealers, crooked collectors, forgers, and Austrian double-agents in Nazi-occupied Europe - and examines the history of art theft and the politics of art in war. Jan Van Eyck's "Ghent Altarpiece" is on any art historian's list of the ten most important paintings ever made. Often referred to by the subject of its central panel, "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb", it represents the fulcrum between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It is also the most frequently stolen artwork of all time. Since its completion in 1432, this twelve-panel oil painting has disappeared, been looted in three different wars, been burned, dismembered, copied, forged, smuggled, illegally sold, censored, attacked by iconoclasts, hidden castle vaults and secret salt mines, hunted by Nazis and Napoleon, prized by The Louvre and a Prussian king, damaged by conservators, returned as war reparations, used as a diplomatic tool, ransomed, rescued by Austrian double-agents, and stolen a total of thirteen times. In this fast-paced, real-life thriller, art historian Noah Charney unravels the fascinating, sometimes bizarre and dramatic stories of each of these thefts. He chronicles the "Ghent Altarpiece's" 600 years of near constant movement, tracing it as it passes through the hands of some of history's most famous figures, including Hitler and Goring. With its theft in the Second World War, and the subsequent Allied hunt to rescue it from destruction at the hands of the Nazis, the quest to save this one painting became a race to save the treasures of civilization. Charney also explores psychological dramas that lurk within the history of art crime, and the ideological, religious, political, and social motivations that have led many men to covet this one piece of artwork above all others. "Stealing the Mystic Lamb" will mesmerize readers interested in art, war, and the art of deception.
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13 reviews
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
A terrific read..
4 Oct 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I really enjoyed this book. We are introduced to the Ghent Altarpiece, a 500 year old art masterpiece, a painting on wood that weighs 2 tons---and yet it has been stolen more often than any other work of art. Noah Charney tells us why---and what happened. We learn how revolutionary the painting was, and how it inspired most of the great artists of the Renaissance. There are intriguing mysteries---we don't really know who painted it, and we're not really sure if one lost panel is real. Then there are the thefts---for so many reasons: religious wars, misplaced patriotism, war booty, ransom and finally, and most excitingly, by the Nazi's for Hitlers planned "ubermuseum". The story reads like a thriller, sharply written and well paced. Especially engrossing was the last section as the Allied Third Army races to locate the stolen "Mystic Lamb" before the Nazi's can destroy it and thousancds of other irreplaceable works of art, as part of their vengeful retreat at war's end. If you are interested in art, or art crime---or a fascinating march through history -you will love this book.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Interesting and Intriguing Read
29 Sep 2010
Format:Hardcover
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The chapters have a wonderful dramatic arc and I found the story of how the painting was repeatedly stolen very easy to read. It is an utterly convincing book with a precise regard for detail, and yet without being too bogged down. Who would have thought that a single painting could contain so much and have such a fascinating history. I loved the chapter called 'Thieves in the Cathedral'. I got a very visual sense - as in a film. Would highly recommend this!
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Please don't steal the lamb
19 Mar 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a very interesting book, but even at a mere 288 pages, it does have a tendency to drag. Noah Charney does have an interesting tale to tell, it is just he takes a long time getting there.
The Mystic Lamb is not really a single work, but a series of panels painted between 1426-32 by Jan Van Eyck, the great painter of Ghent. The panels make up the altarpiece of the cathedral of Saint Bavo. It has been described as the last great painting of the Middle Ages or the first great painting of the Renaissance. It features 24 panels including portraits of the Virgin Mary, Adam and Eve, John the Baptist, the two donors, and an annunciation scene. At the center of the altarpiece is an allegorical series featuring a lamb sacrificing itself to save humanity.
The most interesting portion of the book deals with the actual construction and execution of the altarpiece. Van Eyck, though not the inventor of oil paint, he was probably the world's first master of this medium. The vivid colours of the Ghent altarpiece are a testimony to the skill and imagination of the artist that painted it and the revolutionary techniques that Van Eyck perfected that still resonate to this very day.
The altarpiece had numerous second lives after it had become an object of religious veneration primarily as loot for numerous armies, emperors, and even was the subject of a bizarre competition between Hitler and Goering. It survived campaigns by Reformation Protestants who wanted to burn it as idolatrous, the theft of its left and right panels, which were only returned after WWI as well as concealment in an imperfectly bomb rigged salt mine in Austria.
Unfortunately Charney goes into too much detail at times, particularly when describing the 1930s theft of one of the panels, a yet to be solved mystery. The tendency of this particular work to become stolen and threatened so many times is probably due as much to its portability and that it is housed in a church instead of highly guarded museum. Charney finds some apparent enjoyment in going into excruciating detail here. The theft of the lost panel gets a thorough going over and in the end despite all the crazy conspiracy theories it remains lost and no closer to being restored than it was when originally stolen.
I thought Charney went into too much detail when the painting was stolen by the Nazis. This is all old ground and covered in "The Rape of Europa." For all the detail Charney provides, there is nothing that Lynn Nicholas did not provide in her more general history of Nazi artistic looting.
This book is a very interesting one, but because of the author's fascination with the criminal aspects of the painting's history, the story of this important work of art is sometimes lost. Another irritating tendency is Charney's tendency to insist on the importance of the Ghent Masterpiece (as though there could ever be any doubt). It is all a bit too breathless at times. Despite these failings, however, Charney has written an interesting book, it could have been a better one with a better editor.
The Mystic Lamb is not really a single work, but a series of panels painted between 1426-32 by Jan Van Eyck, the great painter of Ghent. The panels make up the altarpiece of the cathedral of Saint Bavo. It has been described as the last great painting of the Middle Ages or the first great painting of the Renaissance. It features 24 panels including portraits of the Virgin Mary, Adam and Eve, John the Baptist, the two donors, and an annunciation scene. At the center of the altarpiece is an allegorical series featuring a lamb sacrificing itself to save humanity.
The most interesting portion of the book deals with the actual construction and execution of the altarpiece. Van Eyck, though not the inventor of oil paint, he was probably the world's first master of this medium. The vivid colours of the Ghent altarpiece are a testimony to the skill and imagination of the artist that painted it and the revolutionary techniques that Van Eyck perfected that still resonate to this very day.
The altarpiece had numerous second lives after it had become an object of religious veneration primarily as loot for numerous armies, emperors, and even was the subject of a bizarre competition between Hitler and Goering. It survived campaigns by Reformation Protestants who wanted to burn it as idolatrous, the theft of its left and right panels, which were only returned after WWI as well as concealment in an imperfectly bomb rigged salt mine in Austria.
Unfortunately Charney goes into too much detail at times, particularly when describing the 1930s theft of one of the panels, a yet to be solved mystery. The tendency of this particular work to become stolen and threatened so many times is probably due as much to its portability and that it is housed in a church instead of highly guarded museum. Charney finds some apparent enjoyment in going into excruciating detail here. The theft of the lost panel gets a thorough going over and in the end despite all the crazy conspiracy theories it remains lost and no closer to being restored than it was when originally stolen.
I thought Charney went into too much detail when the painting was stolen by the Nazis. This is all old ground and covered in "The Rape of Europa." For all the detail Charney provides, there is nothing that Lynn Nicholas did not provide in her more general history of Nazi artistic looting.
This book is a very interesting one, but because of the author's fascination with the criminal aspects of the painting's history, the story of this important work of art is sometimes lost. Another irritating tendency is Charney's tendency to insist on the importance of the Ghent Masterpiece (as though there could ever be any doubt). It is all a bit too breathless at times. Despite these failings, however, Charney has written an interesting book, it could have been a better one with a better editor.
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