The Just Judges Mystery
The most-wanted missing painting in Europe
Image: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
In 1934 one panel of the Ghent Altarpiece was stolen from St Bavo's Cathedral. Ransom notes, a deathbed confession, and endless theories have never produced the painting.
The Just Judges, a lower panel of Jan and Hubert van Eyck's monumental Ghent Altarpiece, disappeared on the night of 10 April 1934. A series of ransom notes followed, and one man — a stockbroker named Arsène Goedertier — reportedly confessed on his deathbed to knowing its location, leaving behind copies of the ransom correspondence but no panel.
Decades of searches, including examinations of the cathedral itself and speculation tied to lines in the ransom notes, have yielded nothing. A meticulous painted copy now occupies the panel's place in the altarpiece. The case endures as Belgium's great cultural whodunit and a reminder that some losses are never resolved.