was deposited in a Dutch diocese in case the middleman was killed. The plan worked so well that to this day it is unknown where exactly the treasure was hidden at that time. The only certainty is that it was packed in shabby cardboard suitcases and taken to some place in the Diocese of Hildesheim. The voucher deposited in the Netherlands was destroyed after the treasure was finally brought back to Essen in 1925 when the political situation seemed stable. In the summer of 1925 the goldsmith from Aachen and his son retrieved the treasure from its sanctuary and brought it back to Essen, travelling in a fourth-class Reichsbahn carriage and carrying the treasure inconspicuously as hand luggage. During World War II the Essen treasure was first evacuated to Warstein, then to Schloss Albrechtsburg in Saxony and finally moved to an air-raid shelter in Siegen, where it was discovered by American troops by the end of the war. Because the treasury in Essen had been destroyed by air raids, the Madonna could not return to its natural place until the 1950s. It was first brought to the Hessian State Museum in Marburg, then to Schloss Dyck near Rheydt. From April to June 1949 it was shown in an exhibition in Brussels, then through October in Amsterdam, and finally returned to Essen. Until the reconstruction of Essen Cathedral was completed the treasure was stored in the vault of Essen's savings bank. The Madonna has not left the city since. Iconography Influences The Golden Madonna is both the oldest known sculpture of the Madonna and the oldest free-standing sculpture north of the Alps. It is also one of only two extant medieval gilded cult images. Gilded sculptures are frequently mentioned in medieval documents, but apart from an image of Saint Fides in the abbey of Saint-Foy in Conques in Southern France not many of those artifacts survive. We know Charlemagne had a life-size crucifix with the figure of Christ in gold in his Palatine Chapel in Aachen, the oldest such object to be described, and many similar figures in precious metal, all now vanished, are recorded in large Anglo-Saxon churches and elsewhere. Most often they are crucifixes, and sometimes accompanying figures of Mary and John the Evangelist are mentioned, as for example those by Spearhafoc in the 11th century. The fact that the Essen statue is free-standing and its enamel eyes point