Art Stolen By The Nazis

Discussion in 'The Third Reich' started by KriegsmarineFreak, Aug 18, 2007.

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  1. KriegsmarineFreak

    KriegsmarineFreak Senior Member

    One of the biggest crimes the Nazis commited was stealing prized art from its captured countries. They stole art from countless musuems and stole national treasures from its occupied countries. They then, would hide this priceless treasures in various hidden places all over Germany. Some still haven't been found to this very day. There's a lot of history concerning these art thefts. I even once read in a book about the Wilhelm Gustloff that there was a rumor that the ship was transporting the, "Amber Room", an very expensive room that was made out of jewels and pure gold that was owned by Catherine the Great. The "Amber Room", as the rumor says, was on board the Wilhelm Gustloff when it sank. Later on there was an expedition on the Wilhelm Gustloff to see if the "Amber Room" was on board still in the cargo areas. The expedition turned out to be a failure. What art theft stories do you guys know? How big of a part did art play in the Third Reich? Was it true that some of the big Nazi leaders had their own collections of stolen art? Also do you guys know any good books concerning this part of World War II?

    Good link on art thefts and history: Nazi looted Europe's great art treasures - The Crime library
     

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  2. Kyt

    Kyt Very Senior Member

  3. KriegsmarineFreak

    KriegsmarineFreak Senior Member

    Thanks for the book ideas, Kyt! I bought "The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Teasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War" from Barnes and Noble. Waiting for it to arrive in the mail!
     
  4. MyOldDad

    MyOldDad Senior Member

    From Der Spiegel:

    The works were thought to have been lost forever. Eleven sculptures, all of them shunned by the Nazis for being un-German, have been found during subway construction work in the heart of Berlin. But how did they get there?
    Digging new subway lines in Europe is no easy task. It's not the excavating itself that is so problematic; modern machinery can bore through the earth with surprising speed these days. Rather, in places that have been inhabited for centuries, if not millennia, no one really knows what one will find. The delays for archeological research can be significant.


    In Berlin, that hasn't often been a problem. Aside from significant numbers of unexploded bombs dropped on the city during World War II and a few long-forgotten building foundations, construction tends to be relatively straightforward. The city, after all, spent the vast majority of its 770 year history as a regional backwater. This autumn, however, an extension to Berlin's U-5 subway line means the city can gloat over a world-class delay of its own. Workers in the initial phases of building a subway stop in front of the Berlin city hall stumbled across remains of the city's original city hall, built in 1290. Archeologists were ecstatic.
    On Monday, however, Berlin's Mayor Klaus Wowereit announced a new series of finds that has generated even greater enthusiasm. In digs carried out throughout this year, archeologists have unearthed 11 sculptures thought to have been lost forever -- valuable works of art that disappeared during World War II after having been included on the Nazis' list of degenerate art. Most of them have now been identified and have been put on display in Berlin's Neues Museum.
    'A Minor Miracle'
    "We hadn't expected this confrontation with this period of time, with these samples of degenerate art -- it is a minor miracle," Wowereit said at a press conference on Monday. "It is unique."
    The finds were made among the ruins of Königstrasse (King Street), a formerly bustling street in the heart of prewar Berlin. Allied bombs decimated the quarter, however, and much of the rubble was simply buried after the war to make room for reconstruction. Much of the archeological work currently under way consists of sifting through the rubble that remains in the intact cellars of the structures that once lined the street.
    In early January, workers discovered a small bronze bust in the shovel of a front loader that was cleaning out one of those cellars.
    "We thought it was a one-off," said Matthias Wemhoff, director of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin and a member of the archeology team looking into the finds. "It wasn't immediately clear that it was linked to degenerate art."
    Soon, however, more artworks were discovered -- all sculptures, all from early 20th century artists and all bearing clear indications of having been fire-damaged. Only at the end of September did it become clear that all of the art pieces -- by such artists as Otto Freundlich, Naom Slutzky and Marg Moll, among others -- were on the list of artworks branded as undesirable by the Nazis. All were thought to have been lost forever.
    Simply Destroyed
    The list of works shunned by the Nazis for being "Jewish" or "un-German" is long, and encompasses primarily early 20th century modern art including pieces by such luminaries as Emil Nolde, Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso and many others. Some 20,000 such works were confiscated by the party and those that weren't sold for hard currency or stolen by cynical party officials were simply destroyed. In 1937, a travelling exhibition of such "degenerate art," as it was called, made its way through Germany.
    Many of the works now discovered in Berlin were part of that travelling show. Historians working on identifying the provenance of the pieces now unearthed have found documents indicating that some of them were returned to the Nazi Propaganda Ministry in 1941. After that, though, the paper trail goes cold.
    Wemhoff believes that the works may have been purchased by a resident of Königstrasse 50, beneath which the finds were made, to save them from destruction. Initial speculation has centered around Erhard Oewerdieck, a government official who was awarded the title "Righteous among the Nations" by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel for helping Jews escape the Holocaust during World War II. He rented several office rooms on the fourth floor of the building in 1941. He is also considered to the be only one in the building by then -- all of the Jewish tenants had been evicted and many deported by then -- to have had the wherewithal to collect the works.
    Other Works?


    Archeologists said on Monday that any pieces of art he might have kept in his offices would have ended up in a pile of rubble following the bombing run which destroyed the building in the late summer of 1944. City officials have initiated contact with Oewerdieck's family in an effort to learn if he did in fact seek to protect some degenerate artworks from destruction. They are also interested in learning what other works he might have held. Archeologists have found some bits of wood and other indications that more destructible pieces might also have been present. "It is possible that there were wood sculptures or even oil paintings," said Wemhoff.
    But if there were, they would have been completely incinerated.

    BuriedXin a Bombed-Out Cellar: Nazi Degenerate Art Rediscovered in Berlin - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

    Photo gallery:

    Photo Gallery: Sensational Find in a Bombed-Out Cellar - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

    Tom.
     
  5. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Tom,

    The fact that the original foundation and celler area was found made headlines here, but I have to say that I have missed any publicity about the sculptures being found.

    Regards
    Tom
     
  6. wtid45

    wtid45 Very Senior Member

    Thought I would pop this in here old thread I know but this fits the bill, I have been watching a series on weather particular paintings are fake or fortune the programme title, well this Sundays episode brought up the painting in the link.......... which had links to Goring and was discovered by this British Army officer. "Geoffrey Webb, the man who donated it to the Courtauld in 1960 for study purposes. Webb, as a British officer responsible for the restitution of looted Nazi art – Goering was among those duped by Van Meegeren – considered it a fake, partly because it was recovered in 1945 from Van Meegeren’s own villa". Master forgery: '17th century work exposed as a fake' - Telegraph
     
  7. Son of POW-Escaper

    Son of POW-Escaper Senior Member

    Don't forget that much of the artwork stolen by the Nazis came from private collections (as opposed to museums).

    A great deal of these masterworks were stolen from the homes of Jews, and I believe there are today several lawsuits pending for their recovery.

    Marc
     
  8. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

    A treasure trove of artworks worth almost £1billion seized by the Nazis and reportedly destroyed in RAF bombing raids during WW2 has been found behind rotting food in shabby apartment in Munich.
    Experts have hailed the discovery of the 1,500 pictures, thought to have been lost or bombed, as a sensational find.
    The story of the lost masterpieces of such painters as Pablo Picasso, Renoir, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall is revealed in this week's edition of Germany's Focus magazine which broke the story of the incredible find by customs officials.


    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2486251/Discovered-Billion-pound-art-collection-seized-Nazis-ordered-destroyed-discovered-rotting-food-dishevelled-Munich-apartment.html#ixzz2jbWJ3uhT
     
  9. Shiny 9th

    Shiny 9th Member

    That will be fun trying to find the owners!
     
  10. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24794970

    A collection of 1,500 artworks confiscated by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s has been found in the German city of Munich, media reports say.
    The trove is believed to include works by Matisse, Picasso and Chagall, the news magazine Focus reports.
     
  11. Bernard85

    Bernard85 WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    good day gage,yesterday,05:22pm.re:discovered-billion pound art collection seized by Nazis.it will be interesting to see if they can trace the owners.of course they are all dead.but the surviving members of the family.i note shiny 9th.#2.it will be fun trying to find the owners.he has a strange sence of fun.most of the owners ended up in a gas chambers.hardley fun.i suppose its a case of what turns you on.have a good day.thank you for posting regards bernard85
     
  12. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    The art works will have been well documented and I do not think that it will be a Problem finding out who they were stolen from.

    The real Problem is as stated, finding the present day descendants who would inherit the artwork.

    It would also be nice to know just how the collection came to be in the house.

    Regards
    Tom
     
  13. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    The real owners or descendants will eventually reclaim their art.

    Remember seeing sometime ago that a Dutch Nazi had been identified after leading a "night and fog" existence since 1945.He was also an art plunderer through his position of power and had built up an art collection taken from Dutch Jewish families.As soon as the individual art was identified,families came forward to claim their art.Of course the case against him from his collaborative past, also was revealed by those Dutch citizens who had lived during the era.

    While Goering plundered art from the occupied countries and he was the in the fore of the practice,others were involved in a smaller scale of plundering loot from German Jewish families.This was in addition to the art that was confiscated following the direction of the Geobbelsque policies.

    Seems that the German authorities have not initiated any initiative in the last 30 months, since the discovery of the art, to reunite this art with their rightful owners.

    Ann Webber the Commissioner for Looted Art in Europe has explained that secret dealing was still taking place by NAZI art dealers after the war.She is insisting,quite rightly,that the German authorities set a timetable for returning the art to their rightful owners.An interesting point she made was that plundered art is still in German museums which have not been officially recognised as plundered art.I think she said that 90% of plundered art is still unaccounted for.
     
  14. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    There was an art historian talking on the BBC last night after midnight....and despite all the rhetoric on the telly things MAY not be as clear as the article makes it appear...

    The "art dealer" in question, the guy's father, toured France after the Armistice under orders, and bought up the bulk of the collection in auctions as owners and galleries - private, public and commercial ones - sought to get rid of "degenerate" and Jewish art before it was simply confiscated. Often he was buying it up at a franc each per painting!....

    The problem of course is - like it or not - these will thus have been legitimate transactions...albeit small!...and while the German state may indeed seize them - the original owners still sold them!
     
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  15. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    PR,
    If your last paragraph turns out to be correct, then there is nothing criminal.
    Perhaps that is why the German Police have not pursued any Investigation in the last 30 months.

    Regards
    Tom
     
  16. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    The art will have to be identified.The art collector,or dealer as you wish died in a car crash in 1956.

    I'm inclined to believe illegal requisition is at the centre of this account....widespread during the war by the Third Reich state and its individuals.

    Touring France after the German unconditional surrender,I would think would have been illegal for a German national until the German Federal Republic was formed in 1949. Further I do not think that the French would be selling any goods for francs...currency was the last thing the French required to barter in those difficult days after the war.The Franc was worthless until CDG revalued it.

    Not much chance of Jewish art being available for sale in France..why would owners wish to sell their own valuable art after the war?.More likely Jewish owned art would be found in Germany after being plundered from occupied countries such as France and be subject to a bartering process,possibly with a succession of "owners"

    Interesting case...developments awaited.
     
  17. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    Hary - not the Armistice/Unconditional Surrender of 1945...the Armistice with France in 1940 ;) That's when this guy (and others) were touring Occupied France, buying up what the Gestapo would be on the eve of designating "degenerate" art and confiscating it....for resale on the world market out via Spain, Portugal etc.
     
  18. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Even so a far fetched account.Still best see what evolves having not seen the interview.
     
  19. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    An update on this case.Apparently the German Customs are conducting an investigation into the case from the point, as I see, of revenue protection,possibly on account of the principal in the case selling off art to fund his living.

    Reported to be a total of 1402 paintings with only 200 framed.The German authorities are assessing each picture and have declared that if the paintings are traced to the former occupied countries and the owners can be identified,the paintings will be returned to their rightful owners.However,it would appear that there are no plans to release images of these paintings.Further it looks as if German museums might be the recipient of some of these paintings.

    Thinking further of the report that the principal's father travelled to France after it fell in 1940, searching for art deals.As far as I can see it would be very hard for German civilians to enter occupied countries.The only people allowed in occupied countries would be the likes of all tranches of military personnel,civil servants having duties in the administration of occupied territories and personnel employed by the Organisation Todt. There would be other official agencies in various delegations related to trade,collaboration of common interests with the Vichy regime and requisitions of French output,but again through authorised channels.

    This brings me round to the thinking that they may well have been German official delegations relating to the arts for the purpose of assessing collections and requisitioning art in occupied countries.....may be a source of this art......Interesting to see what evolves.
     
  20. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Harry,

    Your Quote,

    This brings me round to the thinking that they may well have been German official delegations relating to the arts for the purpose of assessing collections and requisitioning art in occupied countries.....may be a source of this art......Interesting to see what evolves.

    I believe that you may have hit on something here as I remember reading a book called The Master Plan, a book that appears to be very well researched by the author, Heather pringle.

    A chapter is devoted to Delegations acting on behalf of Himmler taking all manner of works of art etc back to Germany immediately after the occupation of Poland and other subsequent countries.

    Regards
    Tom
     

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