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Stealing the Mystic Lamb: The True Story of the World's Most Coveted Masterpiece
Author(s): Noah Charney (Author)
- Publisher: PublicAffairs
- Publication Date: April 3, 2012
- Language: English
- Print length: 336 pages
- ISBN-10: 1610390962
- ISBN-13: 9781610390965
Book Description
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.
Editorial Reviews
Review
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, the story of the various heists often reads like a political thriller.”
Catholic Herald, December 13, 2010
About the Author
Charney is the author of numerous articles and books, including an internationally bestselling novel,
The Art Thief, currently translated into sixteen languages, and Stealing the Mystic Lamb: The True History of the World’s Most Frequently Stolen Masterpiece. His latest book is The Thefts of the Mona Lisa: On Stealing the World’s Most Famous Painting, all profits from which support charity. He lives in Italy, and is currently Adjunct Professor of Art History at the American University of Rome.
