4. Bruges Madonna, by Michelangelo Marble, 1501-1504 Blieved to have originally been intended as an altarpiece, this work was the only one of Michelangelo's sculptures to leave Italy during his lifetime, after it was purchased by two wealthy cloth merchants from Bruges, Belgium. In 1943, retreating Nazis stole it and smuggled it into Germany by wrapping it in mattresses and stowing it inside of a Red Cross truck. It was recovered by the Monuments Men two years later among the other treasures in the Alteussee salt mine. They returned it to Bruges where it now sits behind bulletproof glass in the Church of Our Lady.
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