page_title: Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce
section_title: Jeu de Paume Galerie
hierarchical_section_title: Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce / ERR Operations / France / Jeu de Paume Galerie
caption_attribution_description: Jeu de Paume, jardin des Tuileries, à Paris Jeu de Paume, Tuileries gardens, Paris
context_page_description: The Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce was a Nazi Party organization dedicated to appropriating cultural property during the Second World War. It was led by the chief ideologue of the Nazi Party, Alfred Rosenberg, from within the NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs. Between 1940 and 1945, the ERR operated in France, the Benelux countries, Poland, the Baltic States, Greece, Italy and on the territory of the Soviet Union in the Reichskommissariat Ostland and Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Much of the looted material was recovered by the Allies after the war, and returned to rightful owners, but there remains a substantial part that has been lost or remains with the Allied powers.
context_section_description: All looted and confiscated art works were initially shipped by truck to the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, where Nazi art historians, experts, photographers, maintenance and administrative personnel appraised, filed, photographed and packed the now decreed "ownerless cultural goods" for transport to Germany. The first shipment art works sent to Germany from Paris required 30 rail cars and consisted primarily of Rothschild paintings intended for the Führermuseum/European Museum of Art (EMoA) in Linz, Austria. Among the first fifty-three paintings shipped to Hitler was Vermeer’s Astronomer from the Édouard de Rothschild collection, today in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. As the ERR staff looted and catalogued the French collections, they created photograph albums specifically intended for the Reich Chancellery and Hitler in an effort to keep them apprised of their work in France, and more importantly, to provide a catalogue of items from which Hitler and his curators could choose art treasures for EMoA. A group of these photograph albums were presented to Hitler on the occasion of his birthday on 20 April 1943, by Alfred Rosenberg to "send a ray of beauty and joy into [his] revered life." ERR staff stated that nearly 100 such volumes were created during the years of their art looting operation."
  "The latest advice from authentic neutral sources said that the Gestapo had seized the libraries of all the Masonic organizations in France. The Bibliothèque Nationale (the French National Library) there upon put in a claim for these books, but the latest word was that the Germans declined to hand over them over, saying the material would be sent to Germany for purposes of study. The library of the Alliance Israelite in Paris, worth several million francs, also was said to have been seized and sent to Germany. From the Bibliothèque Nationale - one of the world’s leading libraries - the Germans were reported to have received an inventory of manuscripts, rare books and similar material that had been stored elsewhere in France for security during the war. German officials, according to the information received here, have been exercising close supervision over the French publishing industry. They have also taken over the Maison du Livre de Français, the most important French book exporting agency."
  So called degenerate art was legally banned by the Nazis from entering Germany, and so once designated was held in what was called the Martyr's Room at the Jeu de Paume. Much of Paul Rosenberg's professional dealership and personal collection were so subsequently designated by the Nazis. Following Joseph Goebels earlier private decree to sell these degenerate works for foreign currency to fund the building of the Führermuseum and the wider war effort, Hermann Göring personally appointed a series of ERR approved dealers to liquidate these assets and then pass the funds to swell his personal art collection, including Hildebrand Gurlitt. With the looted degenerate art sold onwards via Switzerland, Rosenberg's collection was scattered across Europe. Today, some 70 of his paintings are missing, including: the large Picasso watercolor Naked Woman on the Beach, painted in Provence in 1923; seven works by Matisse; and the Portrait of Gabrielle Diot by Degas.
  After the war, many of the books hidden by the Germans were collected by the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section of the American military government, and collected at the Offenbach Depot. There, many of the larger collections were identified and eventually returned to their owners. By the end of 1948, " ... the French regained the archives of the Paris bank of Rothschild Freres, the Libschutz Librairie de Paris, the library of the Alliance Israelite Universelle de Paris, the library of the Ecole Rabbinique de Paris, and the Bibliothèque de Chinon."
caption: Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume
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