[CPProt.net] Germany Hankers for its Heritage - New York Times

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 Germany Hankers for its Heritage
July 28, 2005
By JUDY DEMPSEY
International Herald Tribune
When Chancellor Gerhard Schröder traveled to Moscow in May for the lavish
celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II,
Germany's museum directors and curators hoped against hope that Russia would
start returning the art plundered by the Red Army after it took Berlin in
the spring of 1945. 

"Somehow we hoped that once the celebrations in Moscow had taken place, we
could reach a deal over getting the art back and that a new era would
begin," said Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, president of the Prussian Cultural
Heritage Foundation. "I suppose we had been investing in that." 

Lehmann, who has spent the past 13 years negotiating with the Russians, said
the cultural property the Russian authorities and soldiers removed from
Germany in 1945 included 200,000 works of art, two million books, and files
that if placed end to end would stretch three kilometers, or almost two
miles. 

Among the art was the Treasure of Priamus - an important collection of
Etruscan sculptures, vases, terra cotta and other items dating back to
ancient Greece. 

As if to show the Germans the state of the situation, that collection went
on display for the first time as plundered art at the Pushkin State Museum
of Fine Arts in Moscow just as the anniversary celebrations unfolded. 

Both sides accuse each other of plundering art during their respective
occupations during World War II. For Russians and Germans, whose mutual
admiration - and abhorrence - stretches back centuries, the plundered art is
deeply bound up with their emotions about World War II. 

The Germans, in hoping to retrieve what is known here as the Beutekunst, or
plundered art, are acting on a sentiment that, while they bear collective
guilt for Nazi crimes, Germany, too, suffered. In this view, the Germans are
entitled to recover the art. 

For the Russians, the art symbolizes their suffering at the hands of the
Nazis, and the triumph over Germany. That victory is still considered a
great achievement of Soviet rule in Russia, whose president, Vladimir Putin,
hails from Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, one of the cities that suffered
most during the war. 

"The issue of Beutekunst is very complex," said Hartmut Dorgerloh, general
director of the Foundation for Prussian Palaces and Gardens, which oversees
renovations of structures that fell into disrepair in East Germany and whose
art collections were taken to Moscow during Communist rule. Dorgerloh added
that the issue "is linked to national self-confidence and identity. Putin
will not let go." 

Dorgerloh, an art professor who speaks fluent Russian, is a member of the
German team that is negotiating with the Russians. 

For Germans, the Russians are clinging to what Germans regard as their
Teutonic heritage - including about 5,800 ancient books from the famous
Gotha library, two examples of the Bible printed in 1454 by Gutenberg, and
important paintings by Rubens like "Mars Takes Leave of Venus" and "Tarquin
and Lucretia," which was painted around 1610. 

Despite frequent requests, no German official or museum director has been
allowed to visit the places where the art is stored, which means that they
have no idea about the condition of the pieces, other than the few in
Russian museums. 

Schröder's friendship with Putin gave the museum directors some grounds for
hope. But like the anniversary celebrations, that relationship yielded
nothing - and Schröder may be out of power after elections expected in
September. 

"Somehow the issue of Beutekunst was never on top of the German chancellor's
agenda," said Dorgerloh, whose foundation oversees the renovations of
castles that fell into disrepair in Communist East Germany while their art
collections were taken to Moscow. 

Among the Red Army troops who entered Berlin in 1945 were experts sent to
establish "trophy commissions." Their official mission was to look for
Russian cultural property stolen by the Nazis when they had invaded the
Soviet Union. But Red Army officers started removing the large art
collections and treasures that had been stored in bunkers and railway depots
during the war and transported them home. 

One such painting was "Tarquin and Lucretia." It had been bought by
Frederick the Great, who hung it in the picture gallery in Sanssouci, his
magnificent summer palace in Potsdam and the first purpose-built museum
building in Germany. 

During World War II, instead of placing the painting in storage, Hitler's
propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, gave it as a gift to a lover. Toward the
end of the war, the painting was moved to a castle north of Berlin, which
came under Soviet occupation. It vanished. 

According to a book published this year by the Foundation for Prussian
Palaces and Gardens, a Red Army officer identified as Boris Dorofejew took
the painting and brought it to Moscow. 

Dorofejew, the book claimed, took the picture out of its frame, folded it
and later sold it for $800. It reappeared only in 2003 when a Russian
businessman, Vladimir Logvinenko, said he had bought it from a dealer for
several thousand dollars. Russia refused to return it. Now restored, it
hangs in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. 

The Germans say their case for the return of the art is supported by
international law. According to Article 56 of the Laws and Customs of War on
Land, from the Hague Convention of 1907, all property, including state
property dedicated to "education, the arts and sciences," should be treated
as private property and cannot be plundered. 

During the late 1950s, Soviet authorities returned some treasures to the
museums in the eastern, Communist-ruled part of Berlin. 

Germany has started to return to the Russian authorities paintings and other
items plundered by German soldiers from 1941 to 1944. In 1997, the Germans
started giving back one of the most prized possessions stolen by the Nazis,
the Amber Room, an ornate chamber of mosaics and gold. 

In 1990, Germany and the Soviet Union, then under President Mikhail
Gorbachev, signed a landmark treaty stating that the parties "agree that
lost or unlawfully transferred art treasures that are located in their
territory will be returned to the owners or their successors." 

In 1992, after the Soviet Union disintegrated, the German and Russian
governments made another agreement of cultural cooperation. 

"And even though there was an agreement that property stolen from Jews or
from those who resisted the Nazis should be given back, the Russians kept
dragging their feet," Lehmann said. 

In 1997, an alliance of nationalists and Communists in the Duma, or Russian
Parliament, passed legislation banning the return of art to Germany. 

"The law passed by the Duma has to be respected," said Svyatoslav Kutschko,
a Russian diplomat based in Berlin. "There is the legal aspect of who owns
the property and there is the humanitarian aspect, such as returning art to
those who resisted the Nazis or to property owned by the churches. Things
are being done on a case-by-case basis." 

He noted that medieval stained-glass windows were returned to the church in
Frankfurt (Oder) in 2002. (The Duma rushed through a bill allowing the
return as a gesture to coincide with a visit by Putin.) 

By contrast, plundered art held in Ukraine, Armenia and other former Soviet
republics has been returned to Germany. 

"What we now worry about is that with the passing of time, some very
valuable books and manuscripts could be damaged," said Dorgerloh. 

Kutschko, the Russian diplomat, dismissed such concerns. "The museum
directors need not worry," he said. "We do not want to lose the art. It
would be very bad for us too. We are taking care of it." 




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