Restorers unveil original face of Belgium's 'Mystic Lamb'

A painstaking restoration of the “Mystic Lamb”, a 15th-century Flemish masterpiece by the Van Eyck brothers, was unveiled on Tuesday, revealing a “much more expressive and intense” version of the central image of the giant altarpiece. Restorers from Belgium’s Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage began working on the altarpiece in 2012, but in recent months focused on removing the overpainting from the central part of the work which includes the head of the lamb. And the results were unveiled at St Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent on Tuesday, with the restorers highlighting a number of surprising discoveries about the altarpiece, which is one of the world’s most stolen artworks. “The head is very different from what we’ve known since the 16th century. It depicts a lamb which is much more intense and expressive, which connects far more directly with the people, with big eyes,” restoration project leader Helene Dubois told AFP.