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Title details for Stealing the Mystic Lamb by Noah Charney - Available

Stealing the Mystic Lamb

The True Story of the World's Most Coveted Masterpiece

by Noah Charney
John Allen Nelson
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
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2 of 2 copies available
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 been looted in three different wars, burned, dismembered, forged, smuggled, illegally sold, censored, hidden, attacked by iconoclasts, hunted by the Nazis and Napoleon, 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 stories of each of these thefts. In the process, he illuminates the whole fascinating history of art crime and the psychological, ideological, religious, political, and social motivations that have led many men to covet this one masterpiece above all others.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 14, 2010

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781452620336
      • File size: 301405 KB
      • Duration: 10:27:55

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      A seventeenth-century Flemish painting so beautiful it cursed itself forever was the Ghent Altarpiece, or the Mystic Lamb. Painted in innovative detail onto 12 wooden panels by Jan van Eyck, the masterpiece earned uncommon fame throughout its peripatetic life. Author Noah Charney writes, "Since its completion in 1432, the altarpiece has disappeared, been looted in three different wars, and been burned, copied, forged, illegally sold, censored, attacked by iconoclasts, hidden away, ransomed, rescued, and stolen time and time again." Narrator John Allen Nelson sounds comfortable with the challenging vocabulary prevalent in central Europe from the Renaissance to the present. Nelson's forceful delivery demands attention to every word, taking on the format of a history lecture for those wearing earphones. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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