Stealing the Mystic Lamb: The True Story of the World's Most Coveted Masterpiece: Library Edition

Charney, Noah

ISBN 10 : 145263033X ISBN 13 : 9781452630335

Editeur : Tantor Media, Inc, 2010

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

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.

Revue de presse :

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

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Tantor Media, Inc
• Date d'édition: 2010
• ISBN 10: 145263033X
• ISBN 13: 9781452630335
• Reliure: CD