Flemish ‘Mystic Lamb’ masterpiece restored after chaotic past

GHENT, Belgium: A painstaking restoration of a 15th-century Flemish masterpiece is revealing the long-lost detail and splendor that helped make the altarpiece one of the world’s most stolen artworks.

“The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” by the Van Eyck brothers was unveiled 600 years ago at Saint Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent, but since then its full glory has dimmed, after being split into pieces, seized by Napoleon, then the Nazis, and nabbed by thieves.