Evening star., 1946-11-24


) G.+
trough q neu masonry aDdll
Org in Germany confronted
! four large caskets, one of
the name adolf Hitler"
ch by Star stan Artist Newman sudduth.
organization. Hitler had ordered
that all confiscated works Of art
be brought to Germany and placed
at his disposal for the Linz Gal
leries. Goering, however, dominated
the ERR, because he furnished the
much-needed supplies to Rosenberg
through his control of the air force.
Goering, therefore, confiscated most
Of the art for his own collection.
Early in l945 information was
received by the Allies to the effect
that the material collected by the
ERR would be found in the castles
Of Bavaria. Confirmation Of this
information was established when
IT'S repositories were later found in
that region.
The contents of the Bavarian
castles were separated according to
their countries Of origin, and by
October rs. 1945, q 21-car train and
50 trucks were loaded with crates
tof items destined for return to Paris.
Files of ERR Reveal
I'll ,903 Items Stolen
At Munich, a large collecting point
was discovered, and the very metic-
ulpusly kept files Of the ERR were
captured. These files consisted Of
q basic card catalogue, negatives.
folios, photographs and manuscript
catalogues Of looted private collec-
tions. Through these 1t was ascer-
tanned that 2ks03 objects had been
taken from 203 collections by the
ERR.
Other repositories were found In
Baden. Wurttemburg. westphalia.
Thuringia and Saltzkammergut,
Lauffen, Alt-Aussee.
On May I, l945. Berchtesgaden
was captured by troops of the Amer
ican l0lst AirbUne Division and Q
French armored division. Goer-
|ing's collections were seized IN houses
In Berchtesgaden, in box cars at
the station and freight cars for miles
around the town. Eventually the
hodge -podge condition Of Goering's
collections was ironed out and when
this took place 1t was possible to
estimate his holdings at the time Of
his downfall at q figure of 1875
paintings, $50 sculptures, 108 tapes
tries, geo pieces Of period furniture,
6o- Persian and French rugs, rs
stained glass windows and ITS OBJ
jects dart. AL Of it was loot.
The last Of the great repositories
was discovered by the Allies on May
18, in the salt mines around Mount
Steinberg. Actually, it was divided
into two separate caches, one on
each side of the mountain. The
summary estimates Of the collection
listed in part 6,577 paintings, 23O
sketches and water colors. 934 prints,
1877 pieces Of sculpture, 12s pieces
Of arms and armor, 70 baskets Of
objects, 4S4 cases Of archives, 78
pieces Of furniture, 122 tapestries,
l81 cases Of books and 1,700 cases
Of historic manuscripts.
Among the contents were the Inn
portant and famous Van Eyck altar
pieces from the church Of st. Bavon
in Client, the Boutes altar piece
from Louvain and the Michelangelo
Madonna and Child" from Bruges.
According to information received
by the Allies the Germans had
drawn up deliberate plan for the
destruction Of the Alt-Aussee mines.
In April, 1945. the provincial Gau-
letter ordered Kulturreferent Stup-
pack to see that measures were taken
to insure total destruction Of the
mine and its contents. On April 10
heavy cases marked "Marmor, NIGHT
Sturzan" (marble, don't drop were
placed in the chambers. 1t was later
discovered that these cases contained
TOO kilo HE bombs. The bombs
were detonated, but 1t so happens
that some one placed them in such
a way as to protect the art treasures
from any damage whatsoever and
seal the openings Of the mines from
souvenir hunters.
Custodian Tells of Raid
BY Gauleiter Of Austria
Another interesting occurrence at
the Lauffen mine concerns the
statement Of Dr.. Victor Luithlen,
one Of the custodians: .
g.. on April Is, 1915, the former
General Kulturreferent Stuppaok
came to the mines with an order
from the gauieiter Of Austria, Bal
dur Won Schirach, to remove all the
Rembrandts and bring them to him
at Gmunden =. !" where they would
be turned over to the Kampfgruppe
{task force) Fabian. Luithlen tenn
porized and delayed, but Rem
brandt self-portrait, 4 Brueghel, q
Reubens and an unidentified Vene-
tian picture were packed the same
day and removed by Stuppack.
on May some officers and men
Of the Fabian task forcs arrived