National Gallery of Art Archives: World War II Research Resources

Paintings from the Berlin Museums and Hohenzollern Silver

In April 1945, American forces advancing through the German town of Merkers discovered a 

collection of paintings in a nearby salt mine. The paintings had been evacuated from Berlin 

museums to the mine the previous month as the city was targeted by Allied bombing. Since the 

situation in Germany was still precarious, American army officials proposed that the 202 

paintings (200 from the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum and two from the Nationalgalerie) should be 

sent under the protection of the U.S. Army to the National Gallery of Art in Washington for 

safekeeping. This decision caused strong opposition by the MFAA officers and others in the

United States. The paintings remained in storage in Washington until 1948, when the National 

Gallery was asked to exhibit the paintings. Later a selection of the paintings was sent on a rapid 

tour of twelve other American museums. All the paintings had been returned to Germany by the 

summer of 1949.

In 1947 U.S. War Department officials asked the National Gallery to store a silver banquet service 

from Germany. The service was owned by the royal Hohenzollern family before it passed into the 

possession of the German government when Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated after World War I. The 

175th Infantry Regiment had received the silver in 1945 when the regiment accepted the surrender 

of a German rocket division. On 11 April1947, the service, which filled 44 teakwood cases and 

consisted of silverware, glassware, and table ornaments, was moved to the National Gallery. On 7 

January 1949, the U.S. government retrieved the German silver from storage at the National 

Gallery to return it to Germany.

Research Resources 

Two boxes of central files contain information regarding the Berlin paintings and their storage at 

the National Gallery of Art. These include memoranda among staff and correspondence with 

members of the public wishing to see the paintings, communications between National Gallery 

officials and conservators responsible for the paintings, reports and other correspondence about 

packing and shipping the paintings, and press releases. Also in the files are a copy of the January 

1946 issue of College Art Journal with printed statements and protests about the shipment of the 

German paintings to the United States, and three articles on the protection of cultural materials 

and monuments in Europe.

The chief curator’s records contain 5 1/2 linear feet of records concerning the Berlin paintings, 

including a copy of the executive order from the War Department transferring custody of the 

works to the National Gallery, receipts for the delivery and return of the paintings, lists of 

paintings, installation records, condition reports, packing and shipping lists, and correspondence 

(dated 1945 to 1948) between National Gallery staff, staff of other museums, and conservators 

monitoring the paintings in the National Gallery and on tour. Many letters are from people 

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wanting to see the paintings in storage and urging an exhibition. Letters from people requesting 

information about the circumstances surrounding the storage and the traveling exhibition date 

from 1949 to 1967. Object files contain photographs and condition reports of the German 

paintings in National Gallery custody. Also included are photographs of the packing and 

transportation of the Berlin paintings and other photographs. Director David Finley’s subject files

contain correspondence with individuals interested in the shipment of paintings to the United 

States, protesters, and those advocating an exhibition; Finley’s invitations to VIPs and their 

responses; a statement by Finley regarding the Berlin paintings and comparing their quality with 

that of paintings in theNational Gallery’s collection; an article from Life magazine (29 March 1948) 

about the exhibition and preparations for the return of the works to Germany; drafts of the Life 

article with correspondence between Finley and the journalist; and 3 x 5 cards recording visitors 

to the paintings before the exhibition. Also included in these records is a copy of the

congressional bill providing for the temporary retention of the paintings in the United States and 

a copy of the agreement governing the loan of the paintings to other museums for the tour.

Folders of press releases and news clippings are also included.

Public Relations and Communications Records include press releases pertaining to the storage 

and exhibition of the German paintings and numerous newspaper articles in scrapbooks.

Photographs of the packing, storage, and shipment of the paintings, and of crowds at the 1948 

exhibition, are with exhibitions and installations images. 

Oral history interviews of Lamont Moore, Charles Parkhurst, Craig Hugh Smyth, Edith Standen, 

and Carolyn Wells concern the transfer of the Berlin paintings to the National Gallery.

Some records in the archives pertain to the U.S. Army’s acquisition of the Hohenzollern silver 

service and its subsequent storage at the National Gallery.

The central files contain a folder of correspondence relating to the silver service, including a copy 

of the letter from the Secretary of War requesting storage space at the museum. 

The chief curator’s files include the terms of agreement with the army for National Gallery 

storage, packing and shipping lists, results of an army inventory, and a copy of the receipt for the 

release of the silver and glassware to the army for its return to Germany.

Public Relations and Communications scrapbooks contain articles on the German silver and its 

storage at the National Gallery.

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