METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

New York, New York

November 24, 1942

for Submission to the Memorandum
President of the United States

Subject: Protection and Conservation of Artistic and Historic Monuments in Europe and Establishment of Machinery to Salvage and Return to Lawful Owners Works of Art and Historic Documents Looted by the Enemy

Mr. President:

Not since the time of Napoleon Bonaparte has there
been the wholesale looting and destruction of art property
that is going on today in the occupied countries of Europe.
The Nazis have either confiscated, or acquired by ficti-
tious purchase in paper marks, works of art valued by
competent authorities at more than a billion and a half
dollars. These works of art represent not merely an impor-
tant part of the material assets of these conquered countries

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but are considered part of the spiritual heritage and patrimony of these subject peoples. The extent to which the possession or dispossession of art treasures cuts deeply into the national consciousness may be measured by the claims of more than a century of the Greek Government for the Elgin marbles and the Turkish claims that the bronze horses of St. Mark's in Venice, first stolen by the Venetians, next by Napoleon, be returned to the Hippodrome in Constantinople. Clearly, some machinery must be established in the reconstruction and peace terms to prevent similar international issues arising from the looting of national treasures.

Moreover, there must be some way of preserving and protecting works of art that lie in the paths of our invading armies. There should be competently trained persons to advise military authorities, particularly the military governors of occupied areas, how to protect

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such perishable property that is saved and repossessed
and to discuss with them legal measures to be taken for
the restitution of stolen goods in each district.

We know something of what has happened to the Museums
of Poland, of Holland and Norway. While most of the movable
objects from the Louvre had found their way into chateaux
in Unoccupied France, they are now all at the mercy of
the enemy. The German efficiency in dealing with these
matters may be attested by the enclosed despatch from
Moscow. Hitler, Goering and von Ribbentrop have acquired
by conquest among the greatest art collections of all times.
The grandiose concept of the Germans may best be expressed
in the fact that Hitler has erected in the city of his
birth at Linz, as a memorial to his mother, a mammoth museum
building in which the loot of the Nazis is to be deposited.

As director of the largest and most comprehensive

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art museum in the United States and also as President of
the Association of Art Museum Directors, I feel it my
duty, Mr. President, to bring the situation to your atten-
tion, through the good offices of my colleagues in the
National Gallery of Art. Everything for which the great
museums of the United States stand--and there are eighteen
hundred of them--both morally and intellectually is at
stake. This is not a matter which can wait until after
the war but must be organized now so that there will be
a body of experts ready to move in immediately behind
the armies and salvage whatever is possible.

It is my belief that such an organization is neces-
sary and should be part of Governor Lehman's program. I
know that in offering my personal services in this connec-
tion I speak not merely as an individual but in behalf of
an entire profession of some two hundred qualified experts
who would be only too glad to serve the country in this way.

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If the consideration and organization of such an
activity under the auspices of the United States Govern-
ment be agreeable, may I suggest, Mr. President, the
following procedure:

(1) That I may be authorized to go immediately to
Spain with a committee of three museum officials, this
committee to consist of:

John Walker, Chief Curator,
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Daniel C. Rich, Director,
Art Institute of Chicago

A. Hyatt Mayor, Curator of Prints,
Metropolitan Museum (to act as Secretary).

The purpose of this visit would be to see what steps were
taken by the Spanish Government in protecting art treasures
during the Revolution of 1936. The Spanish Ambassador in
a private conversation with me has approved of such a
visit on my part.

(2) That we visit the United Kingdom for the purpose

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of discussing these problems with the museum authorities
of England and of the other governments in London.

(3) That if necessary we visit Sweden and Russia
to learn what we can of the problem from sources of
information there.

(4) That we submit a report to the President based
on such information obtained in this visit which would
lead to proper organization for protection and conserva-
tion of works of art and historic interest by the United
States Government.

I am confident, Mr. President, that leadership by
the United States in a matter which cuts so deeply into
the intellectual life of a defeated Europe would be looked
upon as an evidence of American good faith, and that we
could in the future expect closer cooperation with our

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colleagues overseas and correspondingly greater oppor-
tunities for the growth of our own institutions.

Respectfully submitted,

Francis Henry Taylor

Copy of press report appearing in the New York Herald Tribune of
November 18th and reading as follows:

REDS SAY NAZIS
HOPED TO STEAL
ALL RUSSIAN ART

Declare Captured German
Told of Special Groups
Organized for Looting

MOSCOW, Nov. 17 (AP). --A Soviet Information Bureau
communique issued today quoted a captured German officer
as saying he was a member of a "special service battalion"
organized by Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
for the purpose of stripping conquered territories of
cultural, historic and scientific treasures.

The communique, broadcast by the Moscow radio, identified
the officer as Major Normann Foerster, and included a state-
ment in which he was said to have related that the battlion
was divided into four companies, each to follow the German
army into designated occupied territory.

Three of the companies, he was quoted as saying, were as-
signed to the Russian front and the fourth to Africa. The
latter was said to be in Najles "waiting for a chance to be
transferred to Africa."

Among Russian historical places said to have been looted
were palaces in suburban Leningrad, including the Grand
Palace of Empress Catherine. Chinese silk tapestries and
gilded carved ornaments were reported stripped from walls,
and an inlaid floor of intricate pattern was dismantled and
shipped back to Berlin.

Confidence that His was
made possible quite litte
all + Estimate you from
your art,

It is very little you will ever see

Interval

MESSRS. DOLL & RICHARDS

INVITE YOU TO AN EXHIBITION OF

PAINTINGS

AND DRAWINGS

BY
ETHEL R. THAYER

IN THEIR GALLERIES
138 NEWBURY STREET, BOSTON

December 31 through January 13, 1931

CATALOGUE

1 Interval

2 Circles

3 Boston Arrangement

4 The Algerian Tunic

5 Portrait of Miss Greenslet

6 Portrait of Bernard Bandler II

7 Pareil à la Feuille Morte

8 The Siamese and the Ibis

CATALOGUE

9 Blood and Sand

10 The Bitter Thing

11 The Marshes

12 The Cedar

13 Drawing of Quincy Howe

14 Drawing of Evarts Scudder

15 Portrait of Mrs. T.

Messrs. Doll & Richards will gladly arrange for sittings.
Prices and other information given upon request.

Mr. Cortissoz

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May 11, 1928.

Mr. Putnam has plans in mind whereby this office in the Library would cooperate with the work of the American Federation of Arts. That would be a great source of pleasure to me. He also believes that Washington will have before long a National Gallery of high character which will attract collections and bequests. With the Corcoran, the Freer and the Phillips collections here, the city has an excellent start.

If you are so fond of New York that nothing can pry you away, then you will politely veto this suggestion. But if you are attracted by the idea of living in this beautiful city with a chance to travel and to assume leadership in the art world, then I would most cordially urge you to see Mr. Putnam for the purpose of examining carefully this proposal.

With kindest regards, believe me

Mr. Royal Cortissoz,
70 Fifth Avenue, New York.

May 14th, 1928.

Alexander B. Trowbridge, Esq.,

Director, The American Federation of Arts.

Dear Alexak;

The thing about your letter that goes to my heart is the sympathy in it, the feeling
you have that the Washington engagement proposed might relieve me of some ting of the
strain that is unavoidable in New York life. I can't tell you how I value your kindly
thought. I'll never forget it.

About the engagement itself. It is undoubtedly very attractive, in itself and in the
association that it promises with you. But just because you are so considerate I feel
that I must tell you in some detail why I cannot well accept it. New York has
been my home all my life. Here I have my family and my friends. It would be too much
of an uptrend, uptreating for me to leave. Then there is my paper. My relation to that is
a peculiarly personal one. The Reids, who own it, are tried and tested friends. I have
been on the editorial staff for a lifetime, for full thirty-seven years, in fact, and to
break that tie, especially, as I say, my alliance with the Reids, is simply beyond me.
Finally there is the conviction in my soul that I am a writing man and the belief, which
I like to hold, that through my writings I do some good. I note what you say about the
opportunities that would be given me to write and lecture as well as fulfil my regular
duties in the Library. But it would not be quite what I can accomplish as I am. Therefore
I have to decline. But I do so with very real regret, with most earnest gratitude to
you, and, I may add, with many thanks to Mr. Putnam. He may be sure that I appreciate his
confidence as I do your own. But you will both understand my situation. I have a
niche in which, as it seems to me, I belong and in which I do a tangible service.
I cannot abandon it. Good luck to you on the foreign travels which I gather you will

PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPY: ORIGINAL MATERIAL RESTRICTED

LENORE YOUNG TURNBULL

EDWARD TURNBULL

THE WALPOLE GALLERIES

10 EAST 49TH STREET
NEW YORK CITY

TELEPHONE MURRAY HILL 6512

AUCTION SALES OF
BOOKS MANUSCRIPTS
AUTOGRAPHS PRINTS
PAINTINGS OBJECTS
OF ART CHINA, Etc.

Monday January 24th

Dear Mr. Cortissoz:

I think the way in which you just gathered us in and
made us a part of New York was the very nicest thing that ever
happened, and that one sentence about the Exhibition as "one of
the most charming we have ever had in New York" was altogether
lovely of you to say. And it came on Wednesday morning - just
the very morning when, as the day before the sale, it brought
in throngs of people. And oh, those ladies that chased me round
that room with their glasses (eye-glasses) in one hand and your
clipping in the other!! It was perfectly delicious. And all
the time that warm undercurrent was going through my mind that if
Mr. Cortissoz really thought the prints fine enough to write such
an article, that everything must be all right, and the sale would
surely be a go. And I think it was. Proof of it is that we are
to have another very important sale from abroad. Not so large, but
a very fine collection.

The prints were beautiful and I am so glad you thought
so too.

Yours very truly

III East 10th St.

Dear Mr. Rehn;

I was so pleased and complimented to read Mr. Cortissoz' article concerning my
exhibition in the Sunday Tribune. It is "something" to satisfy and have praise from
a man and critic of his standing; it gives me courage and spurs one on to further
effort, and I have need of this as you know. I wonder if you should chance to see
him, if you would convey to him my deep appreciation and thanks.

THIS SIDE OF CARD IS FOR ADDRESS

Dr. Davenport West, Executor
1 West 72nd Street
New York 23, N. Y.