Posted on 08/02/2007 4:53:33 AM PDT by Daffynition
German cultural institutions have issued a catalogue detailing thousands of objects of art that disappeared from Berlin at the end of the second world war, in the hope of pricking the conscience of governments to return them.
The detailed inventory, which one critic said read like a "book of mourning" for lost German artefacts, contains a staggering array of treasures, most of which are believed to have been seized by foreign soldiers in 1945. They include sculptures by Nicola Pisano, a delicate relief by Donatello, late Gothic Madonnas and an exquisite array of Baroque works rendered in stone and wood. Other star pieces include paintings by Botticelli and Van Dyck.
Article continues A total of 180,000 items disappeared from German collections and have never been recovered. According to cultural experts, they are being held in secret depots in Russia and Poland.
The catalogue concentrates on sculptures and has been compiled by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK), a state-financed body aimed at conserving the cultural heritage of the former state of Prussia. It is one of a series of six publications that are to be distributed throughout the art world in the hope of triggering memories and prompting a return of some of the works.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Sh!t happens when you start a war and lose...
It could work. Invoking guilt has helped a lot of booty calls succeed before.
The sad thing is, there will be/are tree hugging, bleeding hearts that will give this serious debate in europe, the beloved united nations and even our hallowed halls of congress.
JWP
And what about ALL the countless art and historical treasures stolen by Germans during BOTH world wars?
You know all the stuff in Argentina and Brazil.
NO!!!!
This takes stones after all the plundering they did, including their bags of gold fillings they had hidden in Swiss banks.
What don’t they understand about:
“To the victors go the spoils”
heeeeyyy brillant idea :)
hand over that ship will ya !
(you will always remmeber this as the day you almost...)
If only the Germans were half as conscientious about restoring property plundered from Jews.
Not to mention the works that the Nazis burned as “degenerate”.
Yes.
I think I’d simply say sorry and hope life moves on...
However, it seems logical to me that the Poles and Russians would claim the treasures as partial compensation for the Nazi attacks on Poland and Russia.
It’s rumored that American GIs occupying Germany helped themselves to a few souveniers.
No, I don’t recall how that 16th century German coat-of-arms got onto my den wall. I think I picked it up at a flea market sale back in ‘56. Thought it would make a great tray for serving the kids lemonade on hot summer days. A German coat-of-arms, you say? Noooo, you mean that writing on the back is German, not Japanese? Well, how about that...the world is still full of surprises after all these years. Care for some lemonade?
If we gathered a full listing of the six to twelve million Jews, Gypsies, Soviet POWs, disabled & mentally ill people, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roman Catholic Poles, and political prisoners murdered in German POW, Concentration and Extermination Camps from 1934 to 1945, who would return them? To where?
I do not have any compassion for lost German art objects at the close of World, War Two...
I don’t think the Pushkin galleries and Tretyakov museum are ready to part with their collections, but Germany can have my chunk of the Berlin wall back if they ask nicely.
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