ART TREASURES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 8, 11 January 1944, Page 5

ART TREASURES

THE NAZI LOOTERS

ITALIAN GALLERIES SUFFER

Since the Nazis openly began to loot Italian art treasures in the territory under their control official German statements have attempted to fix the guilt—they do not deny the 'lootmg—on individual soldiers, writes George Mihan in the London "Daily Telegraph." It was, however, well known tha'; the "connoisseurs" who compose Ribbentrop's notorious "art battalions" have drawn up comprehensive lists of Italian art treasures, as they have done in all European countries under German occupation. For years German art "spies"—experts of undoubted standing—have been .prying into museums and private collections, keeping their registers up to date and reporting all changes in ownership and location. Ribbentrop's special unit are only pursuing now the same tactics they followed in Holland, France, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia, where even pictures or other treasures that were being cleaned, or for' other reasons were absent from their usual places, were unerringly located by the German experts. In the case of Italy the Nazi leaders* direct responsibility for such acts of looting is certain. It becomes evident from the fact that the booty is packed, crated, and dispatched without any difficulty. Would an ordinary soldier be in a position expertly to craift and hand in for dispatch to Germany large pictures, fragile "objects of virtue, and other loot demanding careful and expert handling unless the German authorities had given the necessary instructions to -this postal, railway, and military authorities? j- Details of this large-scale raid on art are, of course, not yet forthcoming. We may assume that the Nazis will not altogether "clean out" the museums and galleries either of Rome or any other Italian town under their control. To do so would cause bitterness even among supporters of the ex-Duce It seems more probable that they will follow the procedure as practised in other countries—where they effected an Anschluss of works of art rare manuscripts, and so forth, wherever they were the work of German masters. . "German" in that context is interpreted with considerable latitude. Works of which Germany is the subject may be included. We may therefore expect the Germans to carry off paintings and drawings by German artists from Italian art galleries—a procedure officially described as "repatriation."

The chief beneficiary of such looting will be the Germanic Museum in Nuremberg, which has already "re/fi^iioox Qr? s i by * A^recht Duerer (1471-1528) stolen from several of the occupied countries. The Pitti Gallery in Florence possesses several contemporary copies of his famous "Adam and Eve ; although their value is not very great, we may assume that they are now, or soon will be, under German "protection." Extremely important, and valuable moreover, are the five original Duerers owned by the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, •* antf there are others in Genoa, Milan, and Siena. Another artist well represented iii Italian galleries is Hans Holbein the Younger. It is interesting to note that Holbein was born on Swiss soil, as Basle—a fact which did hot prevent the Germans from claiming his "German" origin, an assertion alffo made in the case of Rembrandt. Holbein's "Erasmus of Rotterdam" (about 1530) has been one of the proudest possessions of the Gallery of Parma; his portrait of Henry VIII adorns or adorned the Rome National Gallery. There are many other works of art —paintings, etchings, woodcuts—by German artists in Italian museums, Their fate is at present uncertain. They should not be forgotten when Germany is ipresented with her account,