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The treasure of the Berlin State museums and its allied capture: remarks and questions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2005

K Goldmann
Affiliation:
Museum fü Vor- und Frühgeschicte (Museum of Pre- and Early History), Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany

Extract

Following the disclosure of archives in the former Soviet Union detailing art works taken from Germany at the end of World War II, it is now possible to reconstruct more accurately a history of those objects removed from Germany but never returned. Inconsistencies in the documentary evidence concerning both the location of objects sent West from Berlin and other repositories (particularly in the last few months of the war) and the number of objects returned to Germany indicate that the United States may have been involved in an unofficial policy of claiming as war booty art treasures form the conquered German nation. This article attempts to detail some of those inconsistencies by comparing what is known of the inventories of German museums before the war, the movements of art objects and repositories used during the war, and the inventories of the German museums today, in order to reconstruct some of this missing pact.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The International Cultural Property Society

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