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Throughout six centuries, the Ghent Altarpiece has been burned, forged, and raided in three different wars.
六个世纪以来，根特祭坛画在三场战争中经历过焚烧、伪造和劫掠。
It is, in fact, the world's most stolen artwork. And while it's told some of its secrets, it's kept others hidden.
事实上，它堪称世界被盗艺术品之最。它在诉说着一些秘密的同时，也隐藏着一些秘密。
In 1934, the police of Ghent, Belgium heard that one of the Altarpiece's panels, split between its front and back, was suddenly gone.
1934年，比利时根特市的警察得知这组祭坛画中的一块，就是前后两部分裂开那块，突然不见了。
The commissioner investigated the scene but determined that a theft at a cheese shop was more pressing.
警长调查了案发现场，但他认为与之相比，发生在一家奶酪店的盗窃案更加紧迫。
Twelve ransom notes appeared over the following months and one half of the panel was even returned as a show of good faith.
接下来的几个月里，警方收到了12封勒索信，盗贼甚至还了一半画屏回来，以此来展现善意。
Meanwhile, art restorer Jef van der Veken made a replica of the other half for display until it was found. But it never was.
同时，艺术品修复师杰夫·范德维肯复制了另外半块，用于在真迹被寻回前，代替其进行展出，但是真画再未现世。
Some suspected that he was involved in the theft and, once ransom demands failed, had simply painted over the original and presented it as his copy.
有人怀疑这位修复师参与了盗窃，勒索失败之后，他就在原作上涂涂抹抹，把它当成复制品现于人前。
But a definitive answer wouldn't come for decades.
但数十年来，这个问题一直没有确切答案。
Just six years later, Hitler was planning a grand museum, but was missing his most desired possession: the Ghent Altarpiece.
6年之后，希特勒计划修建一座宏伟的博物馆，但错过了他自己最渴望的宝贝：根特祭坛画。
As Nazi forces advanced, Belgian leaders sent the painting to France.
随着纳粹军队一路猛进，比利时领导人将祭坛画送往了法国。
But the Nazis commandeered and moved it to a salt mine converted into a stolen art warehouse that contained over 6,000 masterpieces.
但却被纳粹霸占了，并搬到了一座盐矿中，这座盐矿被改造成了艺术品仓库，存放着6000多幅偷来的艺术品。
Near the war's end in 1945, a Nazi official decided he'd rather blow up the mine before letting it fall into Allied hands.
1945年二战即将结束时，一位纳粹军官决定他宁愿炸毁这座盐矿也不要任其落入同盟国手中。
In fact, the Allies had soldiers called Monuments Men who were tasked with protecting cultural treasures.
事实上，同盟国中有专门的古迹卫士，保护文化珍宝就是他们的职责所在。
Two of them were stationed 570 kilometers away when one got a toothache.
当时有两名卫士驻扎在离盐矿570公里处，其中一人牙疼起来。
They visited a local dentist, who mentioned that his son-in-law also loved art and took them to meet him.
他们去看了当地的牙医，牙医提到自己的女婿也热爱艺术品，还带他们与之见了一面。
They discovered that he was actually one of the Nazi's former art advisors, now in hiding. And miraculously, he told them everything.
卫士们发现这个人其实是纳粹军队的前艺术顾问之一，现在在东躲西藏。出人意料地，他对卫士们坦白了一切。
The Monuments Men devised a plan to rescue the art and the local Resistance delayed the mine's destruction until they arrived.
古迹卫士制定了一个艺术品拯救计划当地的敌军秘密抵抗组织推迟了盐矿炸毁时间，直到卫士们赶到。
Inside, they found the Altarpiece among other world treasures.
在盐矿中，他们发现了祭坛画，混在其他世界珍宝当中。
The Ghent Altarpiece, also called "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" after its central subject, consists of 12 panels depicting the Biblical story.
根特祭坛画，因其中心主题，又名“神秘羔羊的崇拜”，它由12块画屏组成，刻画的是圣经故事。
It's one of the most influential artworks ever made.
它是有史以来最具影响力的艺术作品之一。
When Jan van Eyck completed it in Ghent in 1432, it was immediately deemed the best painting in Europe.
自1432年扬·凡·艾克于根特市完成创作这幅画立时便获得欧洲画作之最的美誉。
For millennia, artists used tempera paint consisting of ground pigment in egg yolk, which created vivid but opaque colors.
数千年来，艺术家们使用蛋黄中的粉末填充剂做成的蛋彩涂料，创造出鲜艳但不透明的色彩。
The Altarpiece was the first to showcase the unique abilities of oil paint.
根特祭坛画是第一副展现油画颜料特性的画作。
They allowed van Eyck to capture light and movement in a way that had never been seen before.
得益于这些特性，凡·艾克能够以一种前所未有的方式在画作中展现光线和动作。
He did this using brushes sometimes as tiny as a single badger hair.
有时，他用细小如獾毛的刷子来完成这些部分。
And by depicting details like Ghent landmarks, botanically identifiable flowers, and lifelike faces,
通过刻画如根特市地标、植物学属性清晰可辨的花朵和栩栩如生的面孔这些细节，
the Altarpiece pioneered an artistic mode that would come to be known as Realism.
这幅祭坛画开创了现实主义的艺术形式先河。
Yet, conservation work completed in 2019 found that, for centuries, people had been viewing a dramatically altered version.
但是，2019年完成的文物保护工作发现，几世纪以来，人们所看到的这幅画其实是改动巨大的修改版。
Due to dozens of restorations, as much as 70% of certain sections had been painted over.
由于大量修复，多达70%的部分被掩盖了。
As conservators removed these layers of paint, varnish, and grime, they discovered vibrant colors and whole buildings that had long been invisible.
当文物保护工作者们去除重绘的画层、除去清漆和污垢，他们看到了鲜艳的色彩和长期被掩盖的完整建筑物。
Other details were more unsettling. The mystic lamb's four ears had long perplexed viewers.
其他的细节则更令人不安。神秘羔羊的四只耳朵困惑了人们很久。
But the conservation team revealed that the second pair was actually a pentimento -- the ghost of underlying layers of paint that emerge as newer ones fade.
但是文物保护团队揭开了谜底，原来羔羊的第二对耳朵其实是原画重现--新画层褪色后显现出的下层画痕的重影。
Restorers had painted over the original lamb with what they deemed a more palatable version.
修复人员曾用他们认为更好看的版本在原版羔羊上面重新绘画。
They removed this overpainting and discovered the original to be shockingly humanoid.
文物保护工作者们去除了复绘层，发现原版羔羊酷似人类。
The conservators also finally determined whether van der Veken had simply returned the missing panel from 1934. He hadn't.
他们还最终判定出范德维肯是否还回了1934年丢失的画屏。并没有。
It was confirmed to be a copy, meaning the original is still missing. But there was one final clue.
那块画屏被证实为仿品，也就是说原作仍下落不明。但还有一个终极线索。
A Ghent stockbroker, while on his deathbed a year after the theft, revealed an unsent ransom note.
画屏盗窃案发生一年后，根特的一位股票经纪人在其弥留之际，透露了一张未寄出的勒索信。
It reads: it "rests in a place where neither I, nor anybody else, can take it away without arousing the attention of the public."
上面写着：这块画屏“安放在一个不论是我，还是其他任何人都无法在不引起公众注意的情况下将其取出的地方。”
A Ghent detective remains assigned to the case but, while there are new tips every year, it has yet to be found.
一位根特侦探仍受雇调查此案，但即使每年都有新的消息传出，这块画屏仍未被找到。
