After chaotic past, a flemish masterpiece is restored

Split into pieces and seized by Napoleon and then the Nazis, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb has been given a painstaking rebirth

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.