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One and a half years before the begin of the Second World War during the annexation of Austria in March of 1938, Hitler had the megalomaniac idea of creating the largest European art center in his home town of Linz. At the beginning of the war on the 1st of September 1939 not only did his armies advance but also his art thieves began to fan out to their great foray. A previously unheard of art plundering expedition began. Not only the task forces of diverse National Socialist organizations pillaged the occupied countries, but also the Nazi big wigs took whatever they felt was worthwhile and splendid. However, when the tide finally turned during the war, Stalin exhibited the same behavior and had countless works of art taken from German art collections to the East. The Western allies tried their best to limit the damage. Equipped with lists of works of art which were worth preserving, they searched for and rescued what Eisenhower called the great „Symbols of Civilization”. The topic of the documentation is the long and eventful journey of an exceptional masterpiece of European art: the Ghent Altar created by van Eyck which for the Belgian people represents something like a national shrine. Hardly another European work of art was brought to so many places and passed through so many hands after it had been stolen. The Ghent Altar represents a case study in the history of the art pillaging that went on during the Second World War.