He summoned his lawyer, Georges de Vos, to his deathbed. Then a stockbroker called Arsène Goedertier had a heart attack at a Catholic political rally. As a show of good faith, the ransomer returned one of the panel's two parts (a grisaille painting of St John the Baptist). The theft was followed quickly by a ransom demand for one million Belgian francs. This is just one of many bizarre twists in the story of one of the most famous art heists in history.

Across the street was another theft on the same night he had already been investigating: at a cheese shop. The missing panel – from what was already the most stolen artwork in the world – could wait. The commissioner took a quick look, and left. One of the panels, depicting The Just (or Righteous) Judges, was gone. On 11 April of that year, Ghent police commissioner Antoine Luysterborghs pushed through a crowd at the St Bavo Cathedral that had gathered to gawk at something that was no longer there. In 1934, one of its 12 panels was stolen in a heist that has never been solved, though the case is still open and new leads are followed all the time. It's almost an A to Z of Christianity – from the annunciation to the symbolic sacrifice of Christ, with the 'mystic lamb' on an altar in a heavenly field, bleeding into the holy grail. It's easy to argue that the artwork is the most influential painting ever made: it was the world's first major oil painting, and is laced with Catholic mysticism. The fact that it was the artwork the Nazis were most desperate to steal – Göring wanted it for his private collection, Hitler as the centrepiece of his citywide super-museum – has only increased its renown. It's almost been destroyed in a fire, was nearly burned by rioting Calvinists, it's been forged, pillaged, dismembered, censored, stolen by Napoleon, hunted in the first world war, sold by a renegade cleric, then stolen repeatedly during the second world war, before being rescued by The Monuments Men, miners and a team of commando double-agents. “It’s probably the best solution that I’ve found to lighting up the cockpit.J ust about everything bad that could happen to a painting has happened to Hubert and Jan van Eyck's Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (also known as the Ghent Altarpiece). “I was skeptical about this at first, but it actually works surprisingly well,” Lee said. There are different activation settings pilots can choose, but Lee demonstrated using a short clench, followed by a long clench, to activate the pair of lights on his helmet. This new helmet is activated by a button which the aviator presses by clenching his or her jaw muscles. Some pilots tried strapping lights to their fingers, or wearing tongue-activated lights on their oxygen masks, but Lee found those solutions clunky or unappealing. In the past, pilots brought flashlights to read flight documents, but that meant they had to take a hand off their flight controls to hold the flashlight. Those lights help aviators read maps or other documents in flight, but the really cool part is how you turn it on. Promotional images of the Next Generation Fixed Wing Helmet (LIFT Airborne Technologies)įit, ventilation and devices aside, another neat gimmick that the new helmet has is a pair of lights mounted to the sides. For night flying, they also wear night-vision goggles, but switching between the two with the old helmet was a real headache. For example, fighter pilots use the Helmet Mounted Cueing System, which shows flying and targeting data on a heads-up display on the pilot’s visor. Aviators have a lot of gear they often have to mount to their helmets to do their jobs. Guido Rietdyk, CEO of LIFT Airborne Technologies, said the goal “is to have the helmet not exceed 2.2 lbs in any size or configuration,” which could be great if “any configuration” includes the weight of helmet-mounted devices. The long-term neck and back health of aviators was one reason why the Air Force started looking for a new helmet. “Rather than waiting until someone has a back or neck problem, we’re already training to be stronger before problems occur, so we’re better able to handle the stresses.” Clayton “Red Beard” Cruichshank about a physical training program at Nellis Air Force Base last April. “The idea behind the program is the preventive maintenance,” said F-15C pilot Maj.

Old time pilot art