Rescuing Nazi-Looted Art

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/27/sunday/main3755983.shtml

How The "Monuments Men" Helped Save Countless Treasures Plundered During World War II

Jan. 27, 2008

(CBS) Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day ... the 63rd anniversary of the liberation of the death camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau. Allied soldiers from many lands had to deal then with the aftermath of Nazi horrors, the Monuments Men of the U.S. Army among them. Their story is our Cover Story, reported by Rita Braver.

You may have heard about Nazis destroying and looting art all over Europe. But you may not know that the looting - tons of works taken from both personal and public collections - was perhaps the great pillage in history, as much a part of Nazi war planning as was military conquest.


Allied "Monuments Men" repatriate Leonardo da Vinci's "Lady with an Ermine" to the Czartoryski Collection in Cracow, Poland. (Laurel Publishing)


"If you have an interest in art history, you have an interest in World War II," author Robert Edsel told CBS News' Rita Braver. "If you like extraordinary treasure hunts, it's got something for everybody. There's no way you can't be interested in this story."

This is a story that haunts Edsel.

"I like to think of it as a passion," he told Braver, "some say obsession, but there is so much of this story to be revealed."

Edsel's obsession came late. A professional-level tennis player from Dallas, he went on to make a fortune in oil and gas. By age 39, he was a multi-millionaire and ready for a change of pace. He sold his business and moved to Florence.

FULL story at link.

[rusty charly]

1. !

"Americans were also looters, and the trophies are still being sold, now via the world wide web on sites like EBAY. Individual GIs often used the mail to get looted works back to the U.S. The smallest items were Nazi flags and papers, or an occasional nondescript painting on the wall of a house. The most famous case, however, involved Joe Meador, an American officer who stole the Quedlinburg treasures. These were found in 1990 in Whitewright, Texas and Germans paid $3 million ransom to get them back."

http://www.jewishpost.com/archives/news/stolen-art.html