I just found it, too!
It's the size of a barn door, weighs more than an elephant, and is one of the most famous and coveted paintings in the world.
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/25/132283848/is-this-the-worlds-most-coveted-painting
"Adoration of the Mystic Lamb"
Oh my god!
Then, in 1566, all hell broke loose. Protestant militants broke down the cathedral doors with an improvised battering ram, intending to burn the altarpiece, which they considered to be an example of Catholic idolatry and excess. But alert Catholic guards had disassembled the enormous work and hidden it in the cathedral tower, where it survived unscathed.
And here is the answer to CTyankee's question:
Enduring Mystery
The Ghent Altarpiece didn't stay safe for long. Thieves broke into the cathedral one night in 1934 and made off with the lower left panel.
"This is the enduring mystery that really is part of the popular cultural awareness of the people of Ghent still to this day," Charney says.
The theft has never been solved. Visitors to St. Bavo Cathedral today will see a copy of the missing panel, painted during World War II. The copy is so good that many people thought it might be the original, hidden in plain sight, though recent conservation work has disproved that theory.
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