Judaica

The report was compiled by the U.S Art Looting Investigation Unit, which investigated the pillaging of works of art by the Nazis throughout Europe between 1939 and 1945.

The unit belonged to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) which was replaced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after the war.

It was composed of art experts and historians who were invested with all military powers to conduct their investigations.

The report listed some 2,000 names of people from Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Portugal and Luxembourg who participated actively in the plundering and trafficking of works of art stolen by the Nazis.

The list notably contained a majority of Germans, French, Dutch and Swiss people who had had close links with the Nazis.

The report was only “declassified” in January 1998 and handed over to the World Jewish Congress, according to the French daily “Le Monde” which published its summary.

It remained however unclear why this report was stamped as secret and shelved during over fifty years while most of the people involved in the looting and the trafficking of works of art seized by the Nazis escaped the grip of justice in their respective home countries.

Most of them therefore did not account for their misconduct and remained the prosperous actors of the art market during many years.

The report referred in particular to the Schenker transport Company which was in charge of conveying works of art seized by the Nazis between France and Germany. The much documented Schenker archives enabled the investigation unit to have a clear view of the extent of such trafficking.

The main Nazi network operating in France, where so many Jewish-owned art collections were pillaged, was the Einsatztab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) run from Paris by Bruno Lohse. Its task was to track down Jewish-owned collections throughout France and also in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The ERR regrouped all works seized in France in the Jeu de Paume Museum. There the Nazis selected the best pieces to be sent to Germany or to Austria where Adolf Hitler had decided to create the Great Reich Museum in Linz.

The ERR also sent stolen art works to Reich Marshall Herman Goering and to other Nazi dignitaries who were coveting art treasures. It also bartered “degenerate” paintings and art pieces against old masters paintings with collaborationist dealers.

In the list appeared the name of Georges Wildenstein, a Paris Jewish dealer who fled to the U.S and reputedly run his business from New York with the help of his right-hand man named Roger Dequoy who remained in close touch with the Nazis throughout the war.

In fact the art market in Paris was much buoyant and many dealers there such as Fabiani and Petrides, notably the specialist for Maurice Utrillo's works, became quite prosperous during the Nazi occupation thanks to their dealings with the ERR.

Meanwhile loads of less interesting art works were sold by the Nazis through auction rooms in France and also in Switzerland. Many dealers also took advantage of collectors who were forced to sell their treasures at cheap prices while fleeing from the Nazis.

The main Nazi dealer operating in France and in Europe was Karl Haberstock who bought hundreds of stolen art pieces.

The U.S report also targeted many art experts, historians and museum curators. Among the names listed were those of Jozef Becker, head of the Library of Prussia, who often came to Paris to acquire books stolen from Jewish-owned collections, Ludwig Curtius, head of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome, who acted as advisor to Prince Von Hessen, Doktor Dagobert Frey, head of the Art History Institute of Breslau (Wroclaw), who took part in the looting of the Krakow Museum, Siegfried Fuchs, an archaeologist who plundered many treasures in Czechoslovakia and Fritz Dworschak, curator for the Coins dept of the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna, who visited many capitals to gather valuable coins for Hitler's museum in Linz.

Among other partners of the Nazis were Doktor Eduard Ploetzsch, an expert on Dutch paintings who advised Marshall Goering for his acquisitions and was involved in the looting of the Manheimer and Mendelssohn collections in the Netherlands as well as Hans Posse, head of the National gallery of Dresden, who managed the Linz Museum project and Hermann Voss, a well-known expert, discoverer of Georges de la Tour in the 1920's and successor of Posse after his death, who took part in the looting of the Schloss and Manheimer collections.

In Italy, art historian Roberto Longhi acted as advisor to Eugenio Ventura, a Florence collaborationist dealer who was involved in transactions with Marshall Goering and the ERR.

PLUNDERING IN THE NETHERLANDS

Most surprising was the ambiguous role of Max Friedlander, a great expert for Northern Primitive paintings, who had sought refuge in the Netherlands in 1939 because of his Jewish background.

Friedlander was later detained in the Nazi camp of Mathausen and freed by the Nazis in exchange for his help to track down art treasures for them. In order to save his life he accepted this ambiguous and rather shameful offer whereas many Jews were condemned to be exterminated.

Marshall Goering was much active in Holland, where he installed his agents in order to lay his hands on Dutch and Flemish paintings and Friedlander helped Kajetan Mühlmann, the Nazi representative there, in supervising the looting of art collections in this counrty. As a reward, Friedlander, who also headed a group of renegade Jewish experts placed under Nazi protection , was made an “Aryan of honour” thus escaping from certain death. The report indicated that after invading the Netherlands the Nazis soon coveted Jewish-owned collections, notably those which included paintings from the Northern Schools.

Gauleiter Seyss-Inquart rapidly ordered the setting up of a purchasing committee for the Linz Museum which was headed by Austrian SS officer Kajetan Mühlmann.

It was Mühlmann who did not hesitate to call upon Dutch and Foreign Jewish experts to work under his protection.

Max Friedlander was the central figure of this group which included other Jewish experts such as Victor Modrczenski, Myrtel Frank and Vitale Bloch.

Bloch was in constant touch with Erhard Goepel who was himself working closely with art historian Hans Posse and Herman Voss to supply the Linz Museum with stolen works.

Jewish communities in the Netherlands faced massive arrests in 1941 and their belongings were seized to the benefit of the Nazis and collaborationists, the report stated.

It indicated that several art galleries and businesses were sold at low prices to Dutch collaborationists such as Josef Kalb who took over the Stodel Company specialising in old decorative arts.

The report however could not identify a certain Buittenweg, who in fact might have been either Bloch or French collaborationist dealer Lefranc who managed to lead the Germans to a castle near Tulle, South-West France, where the Schloss collection had been hidden. Lefranc had tracked own Adolphe Schloss's sons and made them reveal that hiding place after their arrests.

Many Dutch museum curators collaborated actively with the Germans, including Dirk Hanneman, former head of the Boymans Museum, or Willi Martin, who was in charge of the Mauitshuis Museum in the Hague.

AN IMPRESSIVE WEB

The U.S report also showed to what extent corruption infected all professions linked to the art world.

Many people succumbed to greed, to covetousness, to weakness, to cowardice and to pressure. Still a few, some of them Germans, refused to take part in the massive looting.

The report devoted 42 of its 170 pages to France where the Nazi administration coexisted with the Vichy government. However, since the French had issued anti-Jewish decrees as from 1940, the Germans faced no real difficulties in their hunt for Jewish-owned art treasures.

Paris held a privileged position for the Germans as many Jewish collectors – Rothschild, David-Weill, Alphonse Kann, Isaac de Camondo, Schloss, Bernheim-Jeune, Wildenstein, Lévy de Benzion, Paul Rosenberg, Seligmann, Kahnweiler among others- were living in France.

Paris was the main art centre in the world before the war and many dealers there had no scruples working with the Nazis after France's defeat.

The report referred to Martin Fabiani, described as a Corsican adventurer and a “gigolo”, who had married the daughter of a prosperous banker. Fabiani had befriended Picasso's main dealer Ambroise Vollard who had appointed him as his will executor and made him a wealthy man.

Fabiani was described with Roger Louis Adolphe Dequoy as one of the most active collaborationists and the report indicated that he surrendered after the war 24 paintings stolen by the ERR to Mr Rosenberg in an apparent attempt to exculpate himself from his wrongdoings.

Dequoy, who worked for Wildenstein before the war, was in charge of the Wildenstein Gallery during the occupation of France. He reportedly acted as an intermediary between Georges Wildenstein , who had sought refuge in New York, and Haberstock. Wildenstein, who was interrogated by the special U.S unit after the war, strongly denied such alleged dealings with the Nazis. Still, some Jewish-owned art pieces stolen by the Germans, notably a set of rare mediaeval manuscripts which belonged to Alphonse Kann, are now reportedly in the possession of the Wildenstein family. Dequoy established close ties with collaborationist dealers such as Fabiani, Engel, Destrem, Boitel and Jane Weytl, "Le Monde" stressed.

The report also pinpointed the role of Georges Destrem who worked with Dequoy in their attempt to get hold of the Schloss collection for Haberstock. In addition, two Austrian Jewish dealers, Hugo Engel and his son Herbert, worked actively for the Nazis in France and in Switzerland.

Achille Boitel, a wealthy industrialist, dealt with Lohse and Hofer before he was murdered by French Resistance fighters. Jane Weytl was a buyer for Haberstock in Paris. This Alsatian woman was the mistress of baron Von Poellnitz who helped organise the transfer of the management of the Wildenstein gallery in Paris to an “Aryan” owner (Dequoy).

Adolf Wüster, a German dealer living in Paris, represented German Foreign minister Ribbentrop for his acquisitions of works of art in France and also advised the German embassy regarding art purchases. He was with Rochlitz the main intermediary for all official Nazi purchases.

Gustav Rochlitz exchanged works with the ERR and was the receiver of many stolen paintings, according to the report.

Another French dealer, Cyprus-born Paul Petrides was described as having much benefited from the German occupation. “He worked with Adrion through whom he sold bronze sculptures by Renoir and a Rembrandt painting to Boehmer, Rosner and Rochlitz who in turn supplied him with paintings stolen from Paul Rosenberg by the ERR. These paintings were later sold to Christian Zervos ( who published the impressive catalogue raisonné of Picasso's works). Petrides was also in touch with several dealers or experts such as Schoeller, Borchers and Cailleux".

It reported the activities of the Jansen gallery which sold old furniture to the Germans and participated in the new decoration of the Reichbank in Berlin as well as the Renou et Colle gallery which sold paintings stolen from Paul Rosenberg and was in close contact with Swiss publisher Albert Skira whose involvement in the Nazi looting remained unclear.

The report also unveiled the dirty role of Miss Lucie Botton, an employee of the Seligmann brothers before the war, who led the Germans to the caches of several Jewish-owned collections.

Meanwhile, the heirs of Alphonse Kann recently discovered that a major painting by Georges Braque, “The Guitar Player”, stolen from his collection during the war, was now in the possession of the Georges Pompidou Modern art museum which has so far refused to surrender it.

THE SWISS IMPLICATION

The report stressed that Switzerland, with regard to the importance of the looting of art works during the war, held third place for illegal dealings after Germany and France.

The U.S unit could not investigate much in this neutral country but collected enough information to determine the implication of many Swiss citizens in the trafficking of stolen works of art.

Many Swiss collectors bought works without asking too many questions about their provenance while Theodor Fischer, a Lucerne dealer, appeared to have been much involved in dealings with the Germans. He was notably in close touch with Haberstock in Berlin and with Hofer, Marshall Goering's representative.

When the war ended Fischer handed back to Swiss authorities over 30 stolen paintings in view of their restitution to their legitimate owners but on the other side, it was established that had sent stolen pieces to Brazil and had offered, in vain, a stolen painting by Seurat to the Basel Museum of Fine Arts.

Hans Wendland, a German dealer living in Switzerland, was in contact with Fischer and the Nazis and worked closely with the ERR, Petrides or Rochlitz. He was arrested by the Americans in Rome in 1946.

Hungarian Count Alexander Von Frey, another art trafficker, was exposed regarding his dealings with the Nazis via a diplomatic channel from Bucharest.

Emil Bürhle, an industrialist, owner of the Oerlikon firm, also worked with the Germans in many fields. He notably supplied the Wehrmacht with ammunitions and bought quantities of stolen works of art. He was in touch with Dequoy in Paris from whom he obtained a Van Gogh painting stolen from Myriam de Rothschild, a work by Degas stolen from Alphonse Kann and several paintings pillaged from the Lévy de Benzion family and from Paul Rosenberg.

Many paintings, by Matisse or Renoir, stolen from Rosenberg found their way to Switzerland while a Zurich citizen named André Martin took possession of other valuable works from his collection, including a Matisse and a Courbet.

Paul Rosenberg painstakingly went on to track down all the works stolen from his collection after the war and recovered many of these in Switzerland.

Meanwhile, against four paintings by Cranach which he gave to Marshall Goering , Fischer got hold in 1941 in Berlin of 25 Impressionist paintings stolen from the Lévy de Benzion collection.

Two Corot works from the Bernheim-Jeune gallery were reportedly found in Zurich after the war but many other paintings looted from Jewish-owned collections which never surfaced back remained probably hidden in some Swiss banks safes.

The report stated that the case of Geneva publisher Albert Skira remained “unsolved”. Skira allegedly bought several pieces stolen in France from Fabiani, Carré, Renou et Colle but the U.S Investigation Unit, despite some serious suspicions, could not prove such fact.

It is highly probable that many of the art works stolen by the Nazis and which were not recovered after the war are still kept secretly in Switzerland.

The report also listed other countries which took part in the trafficking of works of art seized by the Nazis, notably Spain, Portugal or Sweden. Elsewhere in Europe, several illegal dealings took place in Hungary or Romania but on a much smaller level.

Strangely enough, the world had to wait during over 50 years before the report was finally made public though several well-documented books on the subject of Nazi looting, “The pillaging of Europe” and the “ The Lost Museum”, respectively by U.S writers Lynn Nicholas and Hector Feliciano were published in 1995.