New-York tribune., 1918-11-25


Vatican and had it set IN ~
the Louvre he expected it to stav j.
Paris forever. He and his fellow cor
suls, Cambaceres and Lebrun. took nar4
in the ceremonies of installation. Tbo;.
signatures were affixed to the sta+,o
in a tablet of bronze. Evervtb;n,.
about the Napoleonic scheme of .s
thetic loot was regarded as settIaa
permanent. He brought home 6teran,'
thousands of works of art from HI,
campaigns. But the Apollo went bsc,
to Rome as early as 1916. The reaao~
who took pains to check up the wander
ings Of the paintings and SCULPTURES :.
the galleries Of Europe would be as+or
ighed to find how many of them once en-
journed for time in the huge museum
by the Seine. He will realize. then hou
just the Allies were when they reckonad
up accounts after Waterloo. Thew ,r;n
be even juster, in all probability whe,
they reorganize the map Of EuroDe tb;s
winter; but where once they restored
works of art to places from which tbov
had been reft, they ought now to do
some drastic moving Of another kind
A subcommittee of the Mayors Com.
mittee of National Defence has passed
resolutions asking the President to nre-
sent the claims of art at the peace tahle
1t is proposed that Germany be made 70
pay in part for her destruction Of catoe.
drals and other monuments by transfer.
ring to her conquerors paintings and
sculptures to be selected from her own
collections. From the beginning Of the
war this idea has been repeatedly advo.
Gated in The Tribune, and we hail the
aforesaid resolution with unqualified an.
proval. AS matter Of fact, we believe
the French, Belgian and Italian author
tiles have long contemplated drawing
parts Of their indemnities from German
museums. They would be justified in
morals in so doing, and if they needed
any diplomatic warrant they have that
ready to hand in the famous terms"
elaborated by the egregious Count Won
Room. According to his programme, it
will be remembered, which was undoubt-
edly the official programme of the Hun
Empire, the art treasures of France
were to be given up when the Kaiser and
his fellow connoisseurs sat down for
their dinner in Paris. The Louvre was
to be emptied into the Kaiser Friedrich
Museum. The symbols Of the worlds
culture were to be impounded under the
seal of Hunnish kultur That the
triumph of the Allies alone prevented
this wholesale theft is shown by what
happened in Russia. One of the first
things the Hun did there was to strip
the Hermitage.
1t is said that since the signing of the
armistice quantities of works Of art
stolen from Belgium have been returned
to Brussels and other cities, with the
lying explanation that they had only
been removed for safekeeping. Belgian
and French curators, we may be sure,
have kept tally on all the treasures of
which they have been robbed and will in
sist upon the restoration of every last
object taken into Germany But num-
berless paintings and other movabes
have been destroyed, and architectural
monuments of immeasurable value have
gone beyond all possibility of recrea-
ton. Rheims and Ypres are but sym
bolical of an immense loss. In other
words, the contents of the German mu-
seums, though they be valued at millions
and they rightly are-would pay only
in part for what the Hun has ruined in
the countries he has ravaged The con
tents Of those museums should be taken
over by the Allies, sifted by a we'll IN
structed commission, and due proper
tion distributed in Brussels, Paris and
Rome, the transfer being made egaI
part of the peace treaty. If ship for
ship why not picture for picture
There is the more reason for carrying
out this perfectly equitable plan of repa
ration i'll that the German is congeni-
tally untitled to appreciate the master
pieces which his vanity and greed have
led him to assemble. We need cite but
a single incident, that of the celebrated
wax bust of "Flora" Purchased by
DR.. Bode as a Leonardo da Vnc, demon
stration of the fact that it had been
fashioned by one Lucas, a Victorian
sculptor of no more than respectable
talent, left the German 'authorites' ab
solutely unmoved. The Kaiser looked i
over, he and Bode put their heads to-
gether, and forthwith the bust was fixed
in the Berlin museum as a Leonardo to
be so considered by all devout Germans
until the end Of time Another trait Of
the Teuton in matters of art is evinced
in his treatment of the old masters