When the painting was reported stolen from the St. Bavo Cathedral in Belgium, the Ghent policy commissioner, Antoine Luysterborghs, reportedly overlooked the theft since the painting had already been carried off and returned a number of times before. Instead, he prioritized another report that came in at the same time from a neighboring cheese shop (per The Guardian).
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The alleged cheese thief from the neighboring shop ironically became a witness in the stolen panel case, claiming he saw two people leaving the cathedral the night of the theft with a black package about the size of the missing painting, according to The Art Newspaper. But since the witness was a thief himself, the police looked elsewhere for clues.
Later that night, one of the two stolen panels depicting Saint John the Baptist was discovered in a suitcase left at the Ghent train station, along with a note demanding one million Belgian francs as a ransom in exchange for the other panel. However, the location of the so-called Just Judges panel, depicting a group of men on horseback called the “Righteous Judges,” remained unknown.
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