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The Fate of the Masterpiece

How the Monuments Men Rescued the Mystic Lamb from the Nazis

The Fate of the Masterpiece Open the full-size image

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By Noah Charney

Formats and Prices

Price

$3.99

Price

$4.99 CAD

Format

ebook (Digital original)

Format:

ebook (Digital original) $3.99 $4.99 CAD

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This short e-book, adapted from Noah Charney’s book Stealing the Mystic Lamb, tells the dramatic story of the rescue of The Ghent Altarpiece from Nazi pillagers.

As the Nazis stormed across Europe during the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of artworks disappeared in their wake. A group of Allied officers set off on the trail of Europe’s vanished art treasures — they were known as the Monuments Men. The investigations of the Monuments Men combined old-fashioned detective work, personal bravery, ingenuity, and a dose of good fortune. This is perhaps best exemplified in the story of the race to save the 12,000 stolen masterpieces that were kept in a secret art warehouse hidden deep inside a converted salt mine in the Austrian Alps. There awaited the treasures destined for Hitler’s planned “super museum,” which would contain every important artwork in the world. The prize of the collection, and the painting most desired by the Nazis, was Jan van Eyck’s 1432 masterwork, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, also known as The Ghent Altarpiece. This massive masterpiece is considered the most influential painting ever made, and it is also the most-frequently stolen.

This e-book single is adapted from Noah Charney’s acclaimed book Stealing the Mystic Lamb: the True Story of the World’s Most Coveted Masterpiece. It contains all of the material from that book on the Monuments Men and Nazi art theft during the Second World War, as told through the story of two Monuments Men, Robert Posey and Lincoln Kirstein, as they raced to save the Mystic Lamb and the other works in the salt mine from an SS officer who was determined to destroy all 12,000 masterpieces.

Genre:

On Sale
Feb 1, 2014
Page Count
144 pages
Publisher
PublicAffairs
ISBN-13
9781610394895

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Noah Charney

About the Author

Noah Charney holds advanced degrees in art history from The Courtauld Institute and Cambridge University. He is the founding director of ARCA, the Association for Research into Crimes against Art, a non-profit think tank and consultancy group on issues in art crime. His work in the field of art crime has been praised in such forums as the New York Times Magazine, Time, Vanity Fair, BBC Radio, and National Public Radio, among others.

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.

Learn more about this author