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Bird paintings stolen

30/5/1997
By Winnie Graham

It was a huge blow when 23 original paintings of birds by one of the world's best-selling authors, ornithologist Ken Newman, of Sandton, were stolen at Heathrow airport recently.
The devastated artist, who had been planning to show his work to a British publisher, is now back in Johannesburg. He said yesterday that the loss was enormous. The paintings represented two years' work.
"Unless, by some miracle, the paintings are found, I will have to start the work from scratch."
He said he was met at Heathrow by his daughter and niece and had placed the parcel of paintings in the basket section of a luggage trolley. When his daughter had difficulty with a trolley she was pushing, he stopped to help her.
"When we got to the car, I found the package missing," he said. "I can only assume someone at Heathrow took it."
The paintings are signed by Newman, who reported the loss to the British police.
Anyone with information which could help him should call (011) 884-2625.
All Material © copyright Independent Newspapers 1997.

via Art Daily Newspaper
Friday, May 30, 1997
Spain confiscated 22 Goering paintings

Washington (EFE)
By Rafael Moreno

During 1944 Spanish authorities in Bilbao confiscated a lot of 22 paintings presumably stolen by Alois Miedl, Hermann Goering's art dealer, as he was trying to sell them in Spain; even to the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Official documents found by EFE belonging to the North American government, including the original testimony taken by the Franco Customs, confirm the information and describe in detail the 22 pieces. North American espionage services claim Miedl attempted to illegally introduce 200 masterpieces into Spain during the Dutch occupation, and to send the 22 others legally. However, no documents exist confirming whether the pieces were sold in Spain, or who their possible buyers were.
Despite their attempts, the allies could not find conclusive evidence regarding the first shipment, of which it is known that Miedl made a catalog, and from which, according to a report from 1944, the Museo Del Prado was interested in buying a painting for two million pesetas.
In May of that year, Allied espionage claimed that Miedl made contact with José Uyarte, "who had a good relationship with the director of the Museo del Prado" and asked him to help exhibit the paintings. Uyarte declined when he learned that Miedl's passport was German and that the origin of the pieces was suspicious.
Regarding the 22 works found in Bilbao, Spanish authorities confiscated them and photographed them through representatives of the "Orion", the secret U.S. operation to recover art stolen by Nazi's.
Examinations confirmed at least 13 of the paintings belonged to the Goudstikker Gallery in Amsterdam, and, according to Spanish customs authorities, catalog numbers and seals were still recognizable.
Descriptions of the paintings were vague and stated the majority of the pieces were unsigned, although one of the pieces had the name El Greco on it and another two bore that of Jean Baptiste Camille Carot, the French painter.
The collection was stored in three crates weighing 324 kilos and marked "contents - artistic paintings and wooden frames, origin Holland" and was documented by the Irun customs through the Baquera Kutsche and Martin SA firm.
The same customs agent, Ramon Talasac, used during the transaction secretly gave the information to the United Spates Embassy in Madrid on March 2, 1945. He requested to remain anonymous because he feared retaliation.
Holland's government requested on various occasions that Spanish authorities investigate the reports on the Goudstikker collection, claiming that it was looted by Nazis during their occupation and that the pieces should be returned to their owners. Recently, Albertus Van Der Berg, the Dutch diplomat in Washington, declared that Holland is investigating the documents.
Owner of the exportation company, Veland, whose headquarters was in Berlin, Miedl was a key man in the theft of art work owned by Jewish families during the Nazi occupation. Documents dated 1945 state that during interrogations of Miedl conducted by Orion in Spain, he claimed the paintings belonged to him, and that he was selling them to support his family.
"Our representative considered that Miedl was reasonably cooperative", stated the report.
A North American agent has pointed out discrepancies between Miedl's declarations, which deny that the 200 works of art were contraband, and the information obtained confirming that the pieces were by Rembrandt and Rubens, among others.
Documents from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), predecessor of the CIA, confirm that Miedl had taken the masterpieces to Spain before France's liberation on a convoy that crossed the Franco-Spanish border. This was done with the aid of General Kramer, who stated that they were Goering's personal property.

Thursday, May 29, 1997
Painting stolen by Russian troops to be returned to Italy

New York (ANSA)

A 16th-century Italian painting, stolen by Russian troops from the Italian embassy in Berlin at the end of World War II, will be returned to Italy. The painting, a work by Florentine mannerist Jacopo Zucchi, ended up in the gallery of the Wadsworth Atheneum, a museum in Hartford, Connecticut, which has just confirmed the piece's restitution to Italy. "It is fair, the only thing we could do," commented the director of the Atheneum, Peter Sutton, after the museum's Administrative Council approved the return unanimously.
The work titled "Betsabé in the Bath" will be taken to the National Gallery of Ancient Art in Rome. The United States museum had purchased the piece thirty-two years ago for $35,000 at a Paris antique market.
Its history, since the soldiers took it from the embassy until now, is generally unknown.
"The former director of the Atheneum, Charles Cunningham, bought it in good faith, without knowing that it belonged to the Italian government's collection," stated Sutton.
In exchange for its return, the American museum will receive an exhibition of 29 works of Italian art, among them "Narciso" by Caravaggio.
The exchange is the fruit of an agreement between the Atheneum, the Italian government, and the National Gallery of the Palacio Barberini, where the Zucchi painting will be hung.
The Italian vice-consul in Connecticut, Giacomo Corrado, who was directly involved in the negotiations, reported to ANSA that, "The return was a gracious gesture on the part of the American museum, who was not politically nor legally obligated to do so, because Italy's right to demand the painting's return had expired under American law."

Thursday, May 29, 1997
Argentina seeks truth on Nazis and gold

Bonn, Germany (Reuters)
By Erik Kirschbaum

Argentine President Carlos Menem said on Wednesday he would spare no efforts in investigating reports his country was a safe haven for Nazi war criminals and a repository for looted gold from victims of the Holocaust. Speaking to reporters in Bonn at the end of a three-day state visit to Germany, Menem said Germany would be represented on a commission to examine Argentine archives for evidence of looted Nazi gold.P "We ourselves are extremely interested in finding out the truth and learning what really happened," Menem said.
"The commission has specific instructions to investigate where the Nazi gold went and how people in Argentina might have been involved," he added. "I believe I can say that the support from the Argentine government could not possibly be more extensive or thorough."
The commission, made up of Argentine and foreign experts, will have one year to carry out its investigations and prepare a final report. Plans to set up the commission were first announced in April.
Menem said all the necessary government records would be made available for the commission.
"I can guarantee that all the records in the secret service and national archives will be opened to the people in order to facilitate the work of this commission," he said.
Argentina is eager to shake off its image as a haven for Nazi war criminals on the run after World War II and has already opened its central bank archives for investigators trying to track down gold stolen from Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
Recently declassified U.S. wartime documents from 1945 estimate that the Nazis secretly sent more than $1 billion to be invested in Argentina one month before the war ended.
Nazi hunters of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre have also called for an investigation into allegations that the Argentine government gave thousands of blank passports to Nazis fleeing Europe on the orders of President Juan Peron.
Peron, president from 1946 to 1955 and in 1973-74, was an admirer of Italian fascist ruler Benito Mussolini.
During Peron's first period in power, Argentina was the refuge for some top Third Reich officials including Hitler's confidante, Martin Bormann, Holocaust "architect" Adolf Eichmann and possibly Auschwitz concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele.
The country also attracted many Jewish immigrants and has one of the biggest Jewish communities in the world.
A report completed earlier this month by the United States undersecretary of Commerce Stuart Eizenstat and the State Department's chief historian criticized both the U.S. and Switzerland for their handling of Nazi gold after the war.
The report also concluded that some of the gold the Nazis took from individual Holocaust victims was melted down and sold to Switzerland along with gold looted from occupied countries.
Menem, concluding his fourth visit to Germany, said he had won promises from German government and industry leaders to increase their involvement in Argentina.
Menem said he had held fruitful talks with Chancellor Helmut Kohl, President Roman Herzog and Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, with whom he played tennis for more than an hour on Wednesday.
"We played tennis together but that doesn't mean we left economic and political matters on the sidelines," he said.

http://www.artdaily.com/
(Art Daily, The first art newspaper on the internet)
Wednesday, May 28, 1997

40 stolen paintings recovered in Athens

Priceless paintings, which had been stolen in 1994 from the Goulandris-Horn Foundation, were recently recovered by police in Athens. Athens, Greece
Friday the Athens police recovered more than 40 invaluable paintings that had been stolen from the Goulandris-Horn Foundation in 1994, the Athens News Agency (ANA) reported on Saturday. The artworks, along with other paintings and jewelry from other thefts, were found when the police raided an apartment in the heart of Athens. The raid was made in connection with the arrest of Grigoris Rousopoulos, 45, who had escaped from prison in 1994. The paintings had been stolen in March of 1994 from a Mytilini museum in what the press then described as the "theft of the century".
The ANA also reported that according to the arresting officers, Rousopoulos had a notebook filled with newspaper and magazine cuttings on artworks and jewelry.

http://www.artdaily.com/
(Art Daily, The first art newspaper on the internet)

Wednesday, May 28, 1997

Art thefts in Spain increase 49 percent last year

In Valladolid, warehouses were detected where pieces are stored until a buyer makes a special request.
The number of art and antiques thefts reported in Spain incremented 49 percent during 1995 and 1996, according to data given by the General Office of the Civil Guard. The increase was noted in all of its communities, with the exception of Castilla y León, Cantabria and La Rioja. Recently, police from the European nations met in Brussels to announce the creation of a continental data base to combat the robberies.
The manner in which the thieves operate is to first have an "expert" survey the building to be robbed to evaluate the quality of the pieces stored, and then to investigate "the obstacles" to extract them. Often the pieces are indiscriminately dismantled to remove their contents of precious metals and stones, and then taken to Madrid, Germany, England and Italy to sell.
However, the pieces are not immediately put on the market. In Valladolid, warehouses were discovered where they are stored until a buyer makes a special request. The Civil Guard stated that the majority of the dealers who buy the pieces believe that they are legally acquiring them. Current legislative laws are confusing regarding patrimonial property and titles of ownership do not exist.
This week, the police from European nations will meet in Brussels to join efforts. The first step they are taking is to create a European data-base of information regarding reported and unsolved crimes, as well as facts related to uncovered bands and connections.

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-forwarded message-
The following is a small part of the latest Unesco World Heritage News. Information about this Unesco mailinglist is at the end of this message.
Ton Cremers

From: owner-whnews@unesco.org
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 11:05:23 +0100
WHNEWS 13.4 (27 May 1997) rev.
Sender: owner-whnews@unesco.org
** UNESCO URGES PROTECTION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE IN AFGHAN CONFLICT

Paris, 18 April - UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor today urged the people of Afghanistan to safeguard their cultural heritage, following press reports that Taleban leaders intend to destroy the 2,000-year old Buddhist statues in central Bamyan Province.
According to press reports, the Taleban's top front-line commander Mullah Abdul Wahed threatened Wednesday to destroy the historic Buddhist treasures of Bamyan Province, currently under the control of minority Shiite Muslims. "These statues are not Islamic and we have to destroy them," Mr. Abdul Wahed told journalists, adding that Taleban forces would dynamite the famed "Big Buddha", a 55-metre cliff carving located in territory controlled by a rival faction.
In his statement, Mr. Mayor appealed "to the people of Afghanistan -- and particularly the Taleban -- to preserve the cultural treasures transmitted by their forebears and representing the heritage of all humanity. International humanitarian law established detailed rules that were already fundamental traditions of Islam, notably protecting the defenseless in time of conflict. I urge all sides concerned to help insure that Afghan cultural heritage is preserved and that no act of vandalism is committed against these statues.
Mr. Mayor noted that the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (The Hague, 1954) forbids the destruction of cultural heritage. He called on the people of Afghanistan to respect the UNESCO sponsored Convention.
The monuments of the Bamyan Valley, Bamyan Province were nominated to the World Heritage List in 1982, although they were deferred at the time due to insufficient information. They remain on Afghanistan's Tentative List as properties the State Party wishes to renominate.

--------------------------- ** NEW WORLD HERITAGE MAP AVAILABLE
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre is pleased to announce the availability of the 1997 Map of the 506 World Heritage sites. The map, 62x91 cm in dimension, folds to 20.5x 22.5. There is no charge for the map. Please specify the language desired (English, French, or Spanish) when ordering from: World Heritage Map, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 PARIS 07 SP, FRANCE. Please include an address label with your request. (No e-mail requests please).
---------------------------
For the latest information on World Heritage, consult the UNESCO World Heritage Centre WWW pages at http://www.unesco.org/whc/welcome.htm .
Mail submissions to WHNEWS to whnews@unesco.org or to the Editor, wheditor@unesco.org. The next electronic issue of this Newsletter will appear in one week, or later depending on the volume of news submitted. The printed Newsletter is available at: http://www.unesco.org/whc/news/index-en.htm.
Fax: +33 1 4568-5570; Mail: UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 7 place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, FRANCE.

Stealing beauty from Africa

May 23, 1997
Gary Younge

Johannesburg - Nigerian art treasures are being looted from museums to supply an underground network of dealers, most of them based in London and New York.
The multi-million pound trade, which contravenes a United Nations convention on the sale and smuggling of stolen artwork, has left some museums in the country virtually empty.
The looting sparked calls in Britain for the new Labour government to honour its manifesto commitment to rejoin Unesco, which supports the return of all stolen artefacts.
Officially, more than 230 works have been stolen from Nigerian museums, but it is generally accepted that the real figure is much higher. Missing works include Benin bronzes, terracotta heads from Ife in the south, and Sokoto and Nok heads from the north-west.
Many predate written history in their areas and provide some of the few remaining clues to civilisations which flourished up to 2 000 years ago.
In the museum at the University of Ife, thieves, who are often armed, have looted practically the entire collection leaving only empty display cases and a bemused curator.
"When the last set of robbers came the museum guards were drugged. Someone came and promised them a meal and of course they were hungry. While they slept the museum was robbed of most of its last works," said the museum's archaeologist, Ope Onabajo.
Last month, several officials at the national museum of antiquities were arrested for trying to sell exhibits to an American dealer. One official said: "We do arrange for things like that at times. What does it depend on? Money of course."
Nigeria's isolation from the international community following the execution of the human rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, has compounded difficulties in retrieving the exhibits.
The works are usually taken from the provinces to the capital, Lagos, where they are boxed up before being smuggled overseas.
Photographs are sent ahead to dealers so they can find out what is on the market, then if they are interested the piece usually follows.

Thieves rob South Africa of its cultural heritage

Cape Town (Cape Argus, May 26, 1997) - Valuable antique tribal art pieces looted from African countries ravaged by war are on sale cheaply from Cape Town's fleamarkets and curio shops, contributing to the bleeding of the continent's cultural heritage.
South Africa is fast becoming the black market gateway for important historical artefacts which have been plundered from devastated countries like Rwanda, Angola, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire.
Thieves have also been plundering South African museums of a wide range of items reflecting the history of the country.
Authentic pieces, many of them old and valuable, are among the African art being sold here, says Anton Roux, director of the South African Cultural History Museum in Cape Town.
"It seems to be very common if you look at what is available in Cape Town. The conservation world is noticing it more and more. It's a major problem," he said.
African masks going for R500 at local stalls cost very little in terms of foreign currency, said Owen Kinahan, director of Josephine Mill Museum.
At the same time important South African antiques are being stolen at an alarming rate in what museum professional, Gillian Berning, described as a haemorrhaging of museums.
Ms Berning is president of the South African Museum Association, a national body which represents museum professionals.
Organised crime syndicates are supplying an increasing international demand for the items, placing the country's cultural heritage under serious threat, she said.
Government cuts in the funding of museums had seriously affected security, making these custodians of history particularly vulnerable.
The plundering of Africa's cultural treasures meant that entire chapters of history might be lost forever.
"The rest of Africa has suffered enormously from this. Where political problems exist, the people's heritage has become low priority and security of these items has become weak," Ms Berning said.
"Once these items are stolen they become aesthetic objects but they lose every association with the past and become worthless. We limit our possibility of finding out exactly what happened in the past," she said.
There has been a spate of thefts from museums across the country since South Africa's re-entry into the global community three years ago.
Similarly, military burial sites are vulnerable to the spades of grave robbers.
Patricia Davison, deputy director for public programmes at the South African Museum in Cape Town, said that the demand for historically important items was growing.
"As South Africa becomes part of the global map, people are becoming interested in acquiring local artefacts," she said. "There is an increased awareness of southern Africa's cultural history."
The collectors' market was enormously diverse and because South Africa was such a multi-cultural country, there was a wide variety of articles available ranging from African tribal art to postage stamps, old clothing and military memorabilia such as medals, swords and weapons.
With the approach of the centenary of the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in 1999, the scramble for military artefacts dating from between 1899 and 1902 had increased tremendously and stolen items were now fetching astronomical prices on the black market, said Mr Kinahan.
The international illicit trafficking of cultural material was second only to the drugs trade, said Udo K=FCsel, director of the National Cultural History Museum in Pretoria.
A special police unit might be set up to counter the problem, he said.
"It's an enormous, worldwide phenomenon. We have to get government intervention," he said
by Lindsay Barnes
Copyright 1997 Cape Argus. Distributed via Africa News Online.
(26 May 1997 11:47 EDT)

Friday, May 23, 1997
Yeltsin returns trophy art law to parliament

A Kremlin statement said Yeltsin had returned the law to parliament because of "violations in constitutional procedures in adopting the law".
Moscow (Reuters)
By Adam Tanner

President Boris Yeltsin has refused to sign a law asserting Russian ownership of art seized from Germany in World War II and sent it back to parliament, the Kremlin said on Thursday. A Kremlin statement said Yeltsin had returned the law to the Federation Council upper house of parliament because of "violations in constitutional procedures in adopting the law". The Federation Council followed the State Duma lower house in overriding Yeltsin's veto of the law by a large majority earlier this month.
It was not clear if Yeltsin planned to challenge the decision in the Constitutional Court, an action his aides have said was likely, or if he just wanted to appeal to deputies to change their minds.
The presidential press service did not specify which articles of the constitution had been violated. A spokesman said Yeltsin had not signed the document and had returned it.
Yeltsin vetoed the law, which says trophy art acquired by Russia during and after World War II should stay in Russia, in March, but the State Duma lower house and then the Federation Council rallied enough votes to overrule the presidential veto.
Itar-Tass agency quoted the president's office as saying the fact that the Federation Council voted by postal ballot on the issue gave him legal grounds to challenge the way it was approved.
Germany, Russia's biggest Western trading partner, wants Moscow to return the art seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. The treasures include a rare Gutenberg Bible and paintings by Impressionists Claude Monet and Henri Matisse.
But many Russians argue they should stay as compensation for Soviet suffering during World War II. About 27 million Soviet citizens were killed in the war.
The issue remains controversial more than half a century after the end of the war because only in recent years has Moscow admitted it still held a huge collection of the art.
Some of the treasures, including gold unearthed in what is now Turkey by German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1873, are currently on display in Moscow. Schliemann said the gold belonged to King Priam of ancient Troy, immortalized in Homer's epic "The Iliad".
However, vast quantities of paintings, books and other trophy art are still held in storage facilities across Russia.

Venice, Italy (ANSA)
Friday, May 23, 1997

La Fenice arson: two arrests made

A judge here ordered two persons to be taken into custody today in connection with the blaze that reduced the historic La Fenice opera house to cinders last year. Although investigators did not reveal the names of the two, they were identified as electricians who had been working on a restoration crew inside the theater in the weeks before the blaze.
A lawyer for Massimiliano Marchetti, 26, confirmed he was one of those under investigation following a session with Judge Gioachino Termini this morning.
Prosecutor Felice Casson believes the motive for arson lay in the fact the construction company faced stiff penalties because they were seriously behind in the restoration work, sources close to the investigation said.
Since he obtained a 6 month extension on the case on March 28, Casson has placed 6 persons under investigation for arson in the case.
Judge Casson is reported to be investigating two hypotheses: the first is that the fire was set by one of the construction companies working on the theater; the second, that the fire was ordered by organized crime as a gesture to show its power and incite public opinion.
Two local bosses are reportedly under Casson's investigation in connection with the second hypothesis.
La Fenice was completely gutted by fire on the night of January 29, 1996. Questions about the cause of the blaze arose immediately, even as the dramatic images of the Venice skyline lit up with huge tongues of flame made their way around the world.
Several companies are now bidding to rebuild La Fenice, which a team of experts has decided should be recreated just as it was on the original site.
The city of Venice is expected to choose the winning bidder by next month for a July start and a November, 1999 completion date for the project.

Date sent: Wed, 21 May 1997 23:03:52 -0700
Send reply to: exlibris@library.berkeley.edu
From: Christina Huemer
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Theft at Keats-Shelley House

To rare book librarians:
The following editions of Shelley were taken from the library of the Keats-Shelley Memorial House ca. May 1, 1997:

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. The poetical works of P.B. Shelley, edited by Mrs. Shelley. With a memoir. Boston: Little, Brown and company; New York: James S. Dickerson; Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo and Co., 1855. Vol. 2 of a 3-vol. set.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. Poems, Selections: A selection from the poems of PB Shelley. Edited with a memoir by Mathilde Blind. Leipzig, Bernhard Tauschnitz, 1872. (Collection of British authors. Tauschnitz edition vol. 1207)

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. The poetical works of P.B. Shelley. London: Miller and Sowerby, n.s.

If you have any information leading to their recovery, or if you can help replace them, please contact me at the address below and I will forward the message to Catherine Pawley, director of the Keats-Shelley Memorial House (who does not have e-mail). Thank you!

Christina Huemer
****************************************************************************
Christina Huemer, Librarian tel. (39-6) 5846417
American Academy in Rome fax (39-6) 5810788
via Angelo Masina, 5 e-email: huemer@librs6k.vatlib.it
000153 Roma, Italy

Paintings worth £50,000 destroyed in mansion fire

By Auslan Cramb, Scotland Correspondent

EIGHT oil paintings thought to be worth more than £50,000 have been destroyed in a fire at Lennoxlove House, East Lothian, which is owned by the Duke of Hamilton, Scotland's foremost peer.
The fire is believed to have started after a smouldering cigarette was left in an armchair at the stately home after a function for German tourists on Tuesday night. An estate spokesman said the fire was contained because the room had been secured for the night and all shutters and doors had been closed. One section of panelling was destroyed, but most of the furniture and artworks suffered only smoke damage.
The most valuable piece lost was a 1698 picture of Alexander, the fifth Lord Blantyre, attributed to Julian Frans De Geest. Its value was estimated at around £20,000. It is hoped that six smoke-damaged paintings can be saved. In an effort to make the mansion house pay, the duke, who lives nearby, opened it to private functions last year.

May 20 1997
Himmler wanted Bayeux Tapestry

BY MICHAEL EVANS

DESPERATE last-minute plans by Heinrich Himmler to remove the Bayeux Tapestry from Paris a week before the Allied liberation of the city in August 1944 were revealed yesterday.
In a secret message to an SS commander in the French capital, he ordered him "not to forget to bring the Bayeux Tapestry to a place of safety". The message, sent on August 18, 1944 to SS Obergruppenfuehrer Oberg, was intercepted and decoded by Bletchley Park.
The German High Command had had their eye on the tapestry ever since the fall of France. Throughout the war they ran a huge operation to plunder works of art.
The looting of art treasures in Russia was the responsibility of a special battalion of SS. At the end of a list of intercepted radio messages detailing how it plundered Russian museums, art galleries and libraries, was the brief message from Himmler.
The Germans had already made plans to remove the tapestry from France. The tapestry had been placed by the French in a leaden box and housed in a special shelter in Bayeux.
It was later taken to a depot in Le Mans for safe keeping. But the SS arrived with a lorry and presented authorisation from the Vichy government to take the relic to Paris where it was put into a sub-basement of the Louvre.
The SS tried on several occasions to remove it from the Louvre to eastern France but their attempts were resisted by the French authorities.
The newly released files revealed that works of art, including paintings and furniture, looted in Russia were "prizes" reserved for "higher Nazi bosses in their villas".
The lesser bosses had to be content with "rare books and costly vases".

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Germans ran systematic wartime plunder campaign

By David Ljunggren

LONDON (Reuter) - Germany mounted a sophisticated campaign to systematically plunder artistic and scientific treasures from countries they invaded in World War II, according to British intelligence reports released Monday.
The papers mainly covered German activity in the Soviet Union but one revealed that the head of the elite SS security force wanted the Bayeux Tapestry to be removed from its home in northern France after the Allied invasion of June 6, 1944.
The reports -- based on intercepted German police radio traffic -- said the man behind the plundering campaign was Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. But day-to-day control over who stole what lay in the hands of the SS.
``By (Ribbentrop's) order Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium and Greece and in Russia the Czar's palaces near Leningrad were robbed of valuable documents, artistic treasures, furniture etc,'' said one report.
``These prizes were reserved for the use of the higher Nazi bosses in their villas; the lesser bosses had to content themselves with rare books and costly vases.''
Although the extent of German art theft is well known, the documents reveal a highly-organized campaign to scoop up anything which could help the Nazi war effort, including all kinds of scientific papers.
Transcripts of messages intercepted during the last months of 1942 showed the Nazis had formed a special SS battalion to methodically steal whatever valuables they could after invading the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.
The battalion was split into four detachments: one operating in Novgorod northwest of Moscow, one in the Caucasus, one in the southern city of Stalingrad which moved to the Caucasus, and one in southern Ukraine.
``Each detachment has a political as well as a military leader, since it is primarily concerned with procuring, evaluating and using enemy political, scientific and cultural 'material,''' the report said.
One of the many priceless treasures to disappear into German hands was the fabled Amber Room of Russia's Peter the Great. A huge ornate study, it was regarded as one of Baroque Europe's finest treasures.
Despite the end of the Cold War, the issue of looted treasure still bedevils relations between Germany and Russia, with each accusing the other's wartime forces of plundering vast amounts of precious material.
The intelligence reports show that Germany could also have been at loggerheads with France over the priceless 11th century Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts William the Conqueror's invasion of England in 1066.
``From France there is a message of Aug. 18, 1944, from (SS head Heinrich) Himmler to SS Obergruppenfuehrer Oberg at Paris, who is ordered not to forget to bring the Bayeux Tapestry to a place of safety.'' The order was never carried out.
The police messages -- deciphered by the Bletchley Park intelligence-gathering center outside London -- revealed that ordinary troops also plundered, as was made clear by the testimony of a captured officer from the special SS battalion.
``(He) admitted that in the German Army regular plundering attachments were formed whose task it was to rob churches, museums, picture galleries, etc and bring their booty to Germany,'' British intelligence said.
^REUTER@ Reut10:42 05-19-97
(19 May 1997 10:38 EDT)

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