Van Eyck cycling route

The Diocese of Ghent plays a leading role in the ‘audacious theft’ of the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. Each threatening letter with ransom demands was addressed to the bishop personally. He played a game of cat and mouse with the thief, sometimes with the knowledge of the court, sometimes without. The result of the refusal to respond to the demands is well-known: the correspondence stopped and the panel remained lost. Former Chief Commissioner Karel Mortier spent his entire life looking for the panel, wrote a voluminous dossier on it, and still has his doubts about it. According to him, the diocese knows more than it wants to admit, and the panel is in good condition and being taken care of. There was never an official response. Whistleblowers have also abstained for the time being.

Arsène Goedertier, the probable author of the threatening letters, was a Wetteren local. He lived on Wegvoeringstraat, had been sexton in the neighbouring St Gertrude's Church, and was also Head of the Wetteren Drawing Academy. Many of the places in Wetteren that could be linked to him were turned inside out after his death. To no avail. The quickest way to cycle from Ghent to Wetteren is via the towpath next to the Scheldt, but we’ll take you there past the castles of Destelbergen and Laarne.

You enter Wetteren by bike via the Passerelle, a brand-new cycling and foot bridge. It leads you directly to St Gertrude's Church. In 2002, a search for the missing panel was launched amid interest from the national and international press. An amateur investigator was convinced that Goedertier had hidden it there in the main altar. Goedertier lived around the corner, was sexton of the church, and therefore also had a key to the door. It was a possibility, but unfortunately, this also turned out to be a wild goose chase. Everybody returned home without any news.

Author Marc de Bel identified the Kalandeberg as a probable location in his adventure novel 'The Fourteenth Letter' in 2018. The thief is said to have hidden the panel there underground, in a sewer that was open for construction work on the night of the theft. Even former Mayor Termont took that tip-off seriously and had the street broken open, which even caused some political turmoil. But all in vain. They were left empty-handed, yet again. But it does make sense, in a way. Goedertier was an art-lover and a rather good painter himself. Would he really have taken such a risk with an invaluable work of art? Opinions are divided.

Achtersikkel

Another golden tip-off was received in 2019, from a city guide this time. The Just Judges are sitting in the well of the Achtersikkel on Biezekapelstraat, 152 steps away from the fountain on Sint-Baafsplein. It depicts a fox. Let’s assume his name is Reynaert. That villain stole a treasure too, right? And the number 152 can be found in Goedertier’s last – unsent – fourteenth letter, which had been found in the infamous envelope in his desk. As plain as the nose on your face! The well was emptied in the autumn of 2019 and the fire brigade descended into it. However, there was no trace of the panel. This was a good thing, because there was a good chance it would have rotted away by that point.

What if the painting never left the cathedral? The letter-writer literally wrote that the Just Judges 'rest in a place where neither (he) nor anyone else can take it away without attracting the public’s attention'. Perhaps the panel was simply hidden inside the cathedral that night, on, behind, in, or under another object, and was later discovered by the diocese and placed elsewhere. That possibility exists and is considered plausible by many. But, then, where’s the panel? And why doesn't anyone come right out with it?