Attic Whispers from the Blue Mountains [March 2022 Edition]

All of us must stand united in our condemnation of what is happening in the Ukraine right now and do everything in our power to support a nation suffering unimaginable hardship and brutality at the hands of a deranged dictator who must be stopped. Whatever it takes!

Here on the east coast of Australia we have had the most severe floods in living memory. Whole towns have all but disappeared under water. This has caused unprecedented devastation with thousands losing their homes. With businesses and infrastructure destroyed, rebuilding lives will take a long time.

The next book

Many of you have recently contacted me and asked if another book is in the pipeline. The answer? Yes, of course! In fact, I am working on it right now.

Those of you who have read my most recent book, The Death Mask Murders, would have noticed that a sequel has been foreshadowed. The ending of the book makes that quite clear. But wait, there’s more!

As you know, all of the books in the Jack Rogan Mysteries Series stand alone, and can be read as such. However, when we are talking about a sequel, the connection and interaction between the books is of course much closer. That was clearly the case with The Hidden Genes of Professor K (book 3) and the sequel, Professor K: The Final Quest, book 4 in the series.

Those of you who are familiar with these books will remember that I released a novella, The Forgotten Painting, before the publication of the sequel as a ‘link’ between the storylines and characters featured in the two books. This approach was very successful in ‘linking’ the books, and the novella itself was not only well received, but won several literary awards.

Because this approach has worked so well, I have decided to adopt it once again. What this means is that another novella will be released before the next book, the sequel to The Death Mask Murders, is published. This is just one of several literary treats to look forward to this year. More of this later.

You will recall that I indicated recently that the popular segment – Crime of the Month– would return soon. In fact, the first such segment – The Most Daring Art Heists in History(Part I) – was featured in the January newsletter. Judging by the feedback, not only was this segment well received, you asked for more. So be it! Here it is.

According to art experts, Jan van Eyck’s iconic Ghent Altarpiece ranks among the most significant paintings ever created. Unveiled to the public by the artist in 1432 in the Cathedral of Saint Bavo in Ghent, it instantly became a site of pilgrimage for the faithful who saw in the altarpiece an extraordinary creation inspired by the Devine.
Since leaving van Eyck’s studio almost six hundred years ago, the stunning painting was stolen on six separate occasions, was embroiled in thirteen crimes, and has a history that resembles nail-biting thriller-fiction rather than well documented fact.
During the Great Iconoclasm in 1566, Calvinist fanatics tried to enforce the prohibition of idolatry and the creation of images of God by shattering priceless stained glass windows and destroying statues and paintings in Catholic churches in the Netherlands.
This would without doubt have been the end of the famous Ghent Altarpiece had it not been for the brave intervention of a group of knights who pulled the twelve panels of the altarpiece apart and hid them in the bell tower before the marauding fanatics entered the cathedral and enforced the radical Calvinist reforms.
In 1794 another turbulent chapter in the history of the altarpiece unfolded when Ghent was captured by Napoleon’s victorious army sweeping across Europe. The four central panels of the altarpiece were removed by the French, and taken to the Louvre in Paris.
After Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815, Louis XVIII was restored to the throne. In a gesture of gratitude, the king returned the stolen panels to Ghent, the city that had given him shelter and protection during the French Revolution.
In 1816, a corrupt priest sold the wing panels on the black market in collaboration with a bent art dealer. The panels found their way to a museum in Berlin where they remained until 1919, when they were returned to Ghent as part of the Treaty of Versailles.
Hitler, who was obsessed with the occult and the supernatural, was convinced that the Ghent Altarpiece was a coded map that would show the initiated the way to certain Christian relics with supernatural powers.
Eager to get his hands on the altarpiece, he instructed his troops to locate it and bring it to Berlin. According to some sources the altarpiece was on its way to the Vatican for safekeeping in 1943 when it was intercepted by the Nazis and hidden in an abandoned salt mine at Altaussee in Austria. This was a secret location where countless masterpieces looted by the Germans known as Raubkunst, were stored.
The altarpiece was eventually located by the ‘Monuments Men,’ a group ofdedicated art experts from the Allied Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program the purpose of which was to locate, protect and preserve pieces of art and other culturally significant items stolen by the Nazis during World War II.
In May 1945, one of the Monuments Men, Captain Robert Posey, entered the salt mine in Altaussee. There, in a damp chamber deep inside the mountain, he stumbled across an unexpected treasure: the eight panels of van Eyck’s legendary masterpiece were waiting, undamaged, on top of cardboard boxes to be rescued.

Just another little reminder about the FREE Starter Library which can be downloaded right now by visiting my website and following the prompts.

Don’t miss out on the giveaway below from Prolificworks.

STAY SAFE, STAY CHEERFUL, and please STAY IN TOUCH.
We are all in this together, and together we will get through this!

Sincerely,

Author Gabriel Farago