Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:52:08.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nazi-Looted Art from East and West in East Prussia: Initial Findings on the Erich Koch Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Patricia Kennedy Grimsted
Patricia Kennedy Grimsted*
Affiliation:
Ukrainian Research Institute and Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

The article contrasts long-suppressed details of German art seizures during the Second World War from Ukrainian state museums and Western Jewish dealers, ordered to Königsberg by Erich Koch, Gauleiter of East Prussia and Reich Commissar of Ukraine. While most of the art from Kyiv was destroyed by retreating Germans when the Red Army arrived (February 1945), here we investigate “survivors.” Initial provenance findings about the collection Koch evacuated to Weimar in February 1945 reveal some paintings from Kyiv. More, however, were seized from Dutch and French Holocaust victims by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and his cohorts, including Jewish dealers Jacques Goudstikker (Amsterdam) and Georges Wildenstein (Paris). Many paintings deposited in Weimar disappeared west; others seized by Soviet authorities were transported to the Hermitage. These initial findings draw attention to hitherto overlooked contrasting examples of patterns of Nazi art looting and destruction in the East and West, and the pan-European dispersal of important works of art.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , February 2015 , pp. 7 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Akinsha, Konstantin and Kozlov, Grigorii, with Hochfield, Sylvia. 1995. Beautiful Loot: The Soviet Plunder of Europe’s Art Treasures. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Antoniewicz, Grażyna. 2012. “Gdańskie zabytki w Rosji. Czy powrócą?” Dziennik Bałtycki 9 June, http://www.dziennikbaltycki.pl/artykul/651513,gdanskie-zabytki-w-rosji-czy-powroca,id,t.html.Google Scholar
Aponasenko, Anna. 2014. “‘Peremeshchennoe iskusstvo’ v Gosudarstvennom Ermitazhe (1945–1958): fakty, sobytiia, dokumenty.” In Gosudarstvennye Ermitage, “Peremeshchennoe iskustvo,” 1945–1958: Arkhivnye dokumenty, Part I, 21–77. St. Petersburg: Izd-vo Gosudarstvennye Ermitazha.Google Scholar
Bentchev [Benchev], Ivan. 1997. “Zur Ikone ‘Entschlafen der Gottesmutter vom Höhlen kloster zu Kiew’ und der Kiewer Beutekunst.” In Hermeneia. Zeitschrift für ostkirchliche Kunst 1, available with illustrations athttp://bentchev.tripod.com/Entschlafen-Ikone.htm.Google Scholar
Bilenko, Halynaet al., comp. and eds. 2010. Muzei mystetstv imeni Bohdana ta Varvary Khanenkiv/ The Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum of Arts. “Dukhovna spadshchyna Ukraïny.” Kyiv.Google Scholar
Bilokin, Serhii. 1998. “Hirkyi spohad. Pro Polinu Arkadiïvnu Kul’zhenko.” Pam’iatky Ukraîny: Istoriia ta kul’tura 1998, no. 1: 134–53. The final three pages present Kul’zhenko’s memoir report after return to Kyiv, “Spomin.” Siniava, Kyiv Oblast, April 1946. Translated from the original Russian.Google Scholar
Constable, W. G. 1989. Canaletto: Giovanni Antonio Canal 1697-1768. 2nd edition, revised by J.G. Links. 2 vols. Oxford/New York: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Dallin, Alexander. 1981. German Rule in Russia, 1941–1945: A Study in Occupation Policies. 2nd edition. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Doyle New York. 2013. Important English and Continental Furniture & Drawings, Including Old Master Paintings & Drawings, Auction, January 29, 2013. Catalogue #25.Google Scholar
Drost, Willi. 1943. Die Danziger Gemäldegalerie: Neuerwerbungen 1940/41. Danzig: Verlag A.W. Kafemann.Google Scholar
Dubyk, Maryna H. 1995. “Skhema sprav Kraiovoho upravlinnia arkhivamy, bibliotekamy ta muzeiamy pry Reikhskomisariati Ukraïny.” (1944 r.) Arkhivy Ukraïny 1995, nos. 1–3: 35–37.Google Scholar
Eichwede, Wolfgang. 1997. “Models of Restitution (Germany, Russia, Ukraine).” In The Spoils of War: World War II and Its Aftermath: The Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property, edited by Simpson, Elizabeth. New York: Henry N. Abrams.Google Scholar
Eichwede, Wolfgang and Hartung, Ulrike, eds. 1998. “Betr: Sicherstellung,” NS-Kunstraub in der Sowjetunion. Bremen: Edition Temmen.Google Scholar
Enke, Paul. 1986. Bernsteinzimmer Report: Raub, Verschleppung und Such eines weltbekannten. Berlin: Verlag Die Wirtschaft.Google Scholar
Faktorovich, Mikhail D., Ladyzhenskaia, Ekaterina I., and Pel’kina, Lidiia A., comps. 1994. Katalog proizvedenii Kievskogo muzeia russkogo iskusstva, utrachennogo v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny 1941–1945 gg. (zhivopis’, grafika), edited by Mikhail D. Faktorovich. Kyiv.Google Scholar
France. 1947. Répertoire des biens spoliés en France durant la guerre 1939-1945 [Berlin], vol. 2: Tableaux, tapisseries et sculptures/Paintings, Tapestries and Sculpture. Online version: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/documentation/mnr/RBS/T_2.pdf.Google Scholar
Freitag, Gabriele. n.d. “Erläuterungen zu der aktuellen ukrainischen Verlustliste des kiewer Museums für westliche und östliche Kunst.” Unpublished report for the Arbeitsstelle Verbleib der in zweiter Weltkrieg aus der Sowjetunion verlagerten Kulturgüter. Bremen: Forschungsstelle Osteuropa an der Universität Bremen.Google Scholar
Freitag, Gabriele and Grenzer, Andreas. 1998. “Der nationalsozialistische Kunstraub in der Sowjetunion.” In “Betr: Sicherstellung,” NS-Kunstraub in der Sowjetunion, edited by Eichwede, Wolfgang and Hartung, Ulrike, 20–66. Bremen: Edition Temmen.Google Scholar
Fuhrer, Armin, and Schön, Heinz. 2010. Erich Koch. Hitlers brauner Zar: Gauleiter von Ostpreussen und Reichskommissar der Ukraine. Munich: Olzog Verlag.Google Scholar
Gosudarstvennye Ermitage. 2014. Gosudarstvennye Ermitage, “Peremeshchennoe iskustvo” 1945–1958: Arkhivnye dokumenty, Chast I. [Part I]. Saint Petersburg: Izd-vo Gosudarstvennye Ermitazha.Google Scholar
Goudstikker, Jacques. 1928–1929. Catalogue de la collection Goudstikker exposée dans les locaux de la Rotterdamsche Kunstkring … Rotterdam et … de la Galerie Goudstikker … Amsterdam. No. 36. XXXVI.Google Scholar
Grimsted, Patricia Kennedy. 2001. Trophies of War and Empire: The Archival Heritage of Ukraine, World War II, and the International Politics of Restitution. Foreword by Kecskeméti, Charles. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press for the Ukrainian Research Institute.Google Scholar
Grimsted, Patricia Kennedy. 2005. “The Fate of the Kyiv Central Archive of Early Acts: A Triple Tragedy of Destruction, Plunder, and Propaganda.” In Synopsis: A Collection of Essays in Honour of Zenon E. Kohut, edited by Plokhy, Serhii and Sysyn, Frank E.. Edmonton, AB: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press. Also published serially as Canadian Journal of Ukrainian Studies 29, nos. 1–2: 73–114. Updated from the Ukrainian version in Arkhivy Ukraïny, 2004.Google Scholar
Grimsted, Patricia Kennedy. 2013. “Art and Icons Lost in East Prussia: German Seizures from Kyiv Museums,” Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 61, Heft 1: 47–91, http://www.huri.harvard.edu/images/pdf/grimsted_kyiv_loss_mar_13.pdf.Google Scholar
Hartung, Ulrike. 1997. Raubzüge in der Sovjetunion: Das Sonderkommando Künsberg 1941–1943. Bremen: Edition Temmen.Google Scholar
Khanenkivs’ki chytannia, vypusk 1–7. Kyiv: “Kyiv,” 2000–2007.Google Scholar
Konchin, Evgraf Vasil’evich. 1990. “Tainik Villy Holzdorf.” In Konchin, Eti neispovedimye sud’by: Dokumental’nye ocherki o proizvedeniiakh iskusstva i ikh sozdateliakh. Moscow: Molodaia gvardiia. Konchin repeated the story in several later publications.Google Scholar
Konchin, Evgraf Vasil’evich. 1999. “Plennye sokrovishcha.” Voin Rossii, Dec. 1999, no. 12: 90. An earlier version cited from the newspaper Rossiiskaia gazeta, 30 June 1994, could not be located.Google Scholar
Konchin, Evgraf Vasil’evich. 2000. Kartiny, opalennye voinoi. Rasskazy o tom, kak byli spaseny i sokhraneny vo vremia Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny muzeinye istoriko-khudozhestvennye tsennosti. Moscow: Izd-vo “Lira.”Google Scholar
Konchin, Evgraf Vasil’evich. 2009. “Za stal’noi dver’iu sekretnogo arkhiva.” In Vozvrashchenie utrachennogo. Moscow: Arion.Google Scholar
Kostenevich, Albert. 1995. Hidden Treasures Revealed: Impressionist Masterpieces and Other Important French Paintings Preserved by The State Hermitage Museum St. Petersburg. New York: Harry A. Abrams. Sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and the State Hermitage Museum. Also published in Russian.Google Scholar
Kot, Serhii. 1996. Ukraïns’ki kul’turni tsinnosti v Rosïi: Problemy povernennia v konteksti istorïi ta prava. Kyiv. Povernennia kul’turnoho nadbannia Ukraïny. Problemy, zavdannia, perspektyvy, vyp. 8.Google Scholar
Kul’zhenko, Polina. 1998. “Spomin.” (Siniava, Kyiv Oblast, April 1946). Translated from the Russian by Serhii Bilokin. In “Hirkyi spohad. Pro Polinu Arkadiïvnu Kul’zhenko.” Pam’iatky Ukraïny 1998, no. 1: 150–53.Google Scholar
Künzel, Christiane (Kh. Kiuntsel). 2009. “Upravlenie reparatsii i postavok SVAG.” In Sovetskaia voennaia administratsiia v Germanii, 1945–1949. Spravochnik, edited by Jan Foitzik (Ia. Foittsik), T.V. Tsarevskaia-Diakina, and A.V. Doronin. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 363–76. Also German edition: SMAD Handbuchdie Sowjetische Militäradministration in Deutschland 1945–1949. Munich: Oldenbourg. In describing the files in GA RF, fond 3713, opis’ 26, the author was unaware of the larger group of SVAG files from that administration mixed in with the 541 files that in 2009 constituted Opis 16 of the Foreign Trade records (RGAE, fond 413, opis’ 16 – MVT SSSR).Google Scholar
Lundberg, Gunnar W. 1957. Roslin. Liv och werk. Avec un résumé en français et les catalogue des oeuvres. 3 vols. Malmö: Alhems förlag.Google Scholar
Lehr, Stefan. 2007. Ein fast vergessener“Osteinsatz”: deutsche Archivare im Generalgouvernement und im Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Düsseldorf: Droste, Schriften des Bundesarchivs, Band 68.Google Scholar
Lukomskii, Georgii Kresent’evich. 1925. Istoricheskii ocherk i kratkoe opisanie kollektsii Kievskogo gosudarstvennogo muzeia imeni Khanenko. Paris.Google Scholar
Meindl, Ralf. 2007. Ostpreussens Gauleiter: Erich Koch – eine politische Biographie. In Einzelveröffentlichungen des Deutschen historischen Instituts Warschau 18. Osnabrück: Fibre.Google Scholar
Morgner, Mario. 2012. Geheimsache Bernsteinzimmer. Berlin: Tauchaer Verlag. See also the author’s interview as to why the Stasi spent so much effort on the search: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-27/stasi-s-secret-quest-for-czar-s-lost-amber-room-cost-millions.Google Scholar
Niurnbergskii protsess nad glavnymi nemetskimi voennymi prestupnikami: Sbornik materialov, edited by Rudenko, R. A. et al. 2nd edition, 8 vols. Moscow, 1987–1999, vol. 4. 1st edition, 7 vols. Moscow: Iuridicheskaia literatura, 1955–1961.Google Scholar
Orlowski, Sławomir and Orlowski, Radosław. 1959. Erich Koch przed polskim sądem Warsaw: Wyd. Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej.Google Scholar
Orlowski, Sławomir and Orlowski, Radosław. 1961. Russian translation, Erikh Kokh pered pol’skim sudom Moscow: Izd-vo Instituta mezhdunarodnykh otnosheniĭ.Google Scholar
Ovsianov, Avenir Petrovich. 1997. V ruinakh starogo zamka. Dokumental’nye ocherki o poiskakh utrachennykh kul’turnykh tsennostei. Kaliningrad: “Iantarnyi skaz”; series “Tainy starogo goroda”. With Appendix 2: “Opis’ muzeinykh tsennostei gauliaitera Erikha Kokha, vyvezennykh iz Kenigsberga ego upravliaiushchim Poppa 9 fevralia 1945 goda,” 392–97.Google Scholar
Ovsianov, Avenir Petrovich. 2001. “Kenigsberg – Kaliningrad v kontekste peremeshchenykh kul’turnykh tsennostei.” In Zakonodatel’stvo i zhesty dobroi voli, 24–25 April 2001, International Symposium at the All-Russian State Library for Foreign Literature (VGBIL), http://www.libfl.ru/restitution/conf01/ovsianov.html.Google Scholar
Ovsianov, Avenir Petrovich. 2010. U nikh est’ rodina: Sud’ba peremeshchennykh kul’turnykh tsennostei. Moscow: ROSSPEN.Google Scholar
Pel’kina, Lidiia and Faktorovych, Mykhailo. 1994. “Evakuatsiia i hrabunok: Kyïvski mystets’ki tsinnosti pid chas viiny.” Pamiat’iatky Ukraïny 1994, nos. 1–2: 111–19.Google Scholar
Petrovskii, Nikolai. 2002, 2004. “Zagadka Reikhskomissara Kokha.” In Petrovskii, Sokrytye stranitsy istorii, 57–67; 2nd edition, 158–69. Moscow: “Kruk-Prestizh.”Google Scholar
Poliushko, Hryhoriï Vasyl’ovych. 2001. Vtracheni skarby Lavrs’koho muzei. Poshuky i znakhidky. Kyiv: Abrys.Google Scholar
Poliushko, Hryhorii Vasyl’ovych. 2012. Ihorivs’ka ikona Bozhoï Materi. Istoriia i dolia sviatyni. Kyiv: Natsional’nyï Kyievo-Pechers’kyï istoryko-kul’turnyï zapovidnyk.Google Scholar
Prestupnye tseli – prestupnye sredstva. 1985. 3rd edition. 1st edition, 1963. 2nd edition, 1968. Moscow: Politizdat.Google Scholar
Répertoire des biens spoliés en France. See France, Répertoire… durant la guerre 1939–1945 (Berlin, 1947), vol. 2.Google Scholar
Rohde, Alfred. 1942. “Das Bernsteinzimmer Fredrichs I. im Königsberger Schloss.” Pantheon 30, Heft 8–9 (1942): 200ff.Google Scholar
Rohde, Alfred. 1992. “O sud’be russkikh muzeev, kotorye byli vrucheny mne dlia sokhraneniia i pod moiu otvetstvennost.” In Viartanne: Dakumenty i arkhhiunyia materyialy pa prablemakh poshuku i viartannia natsyianal’nhykh kashtounastsei, iakiia znakho- veiatstsa za mezhami Respubliki Belarus, compiled by Tolstyk, Arkadyi. Minsk: Belaruski fond kul’tury. From Rohde’s Soviet interrogation, archival source of original not indicated.Google Scholar
Roslavets, Olena, comp. 1998. Catalogue of Works of Western European Painters Lost During Second World War. Kyiv: Museum of Occidental and Oriental Art, Kyiv [now Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts]; National Commission for the Restitution of Cultural Treasures to Ukraine.Google Scholar
Roslavets, Olena. 2002. “Kyïvs’kyi muzei zakhidnoho i skhidnogo mystetstva u roky Velykoï vitchyznianoï viiny.” In Khanenkivs’ki chytannia, vypusk 4: Materialy naukovo-praktychnoï konferentsiï, 86–95. Kyiv: “Kyiv.”Google Scholar
Rousseau, Theodore. 1945. The Goering Collection. US Office of Special Services (OSS) Art-Looting Investigative Unit (ALIU), Consolidated Investigation Report (CIR), No. 2: 15 Sept. 1945. Mimeographed. A copy from the US National Archives at College Park (NACP) available athttp://www.fold3.com/browse.php#114|hvMxROzkdWx-J5nVj9N6HToY4.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Theodore. 1945. Walter Bornheim. OSS ALIU Detailed Intelligence Report (DIR), No. 11: Sept. 1945. Mimeographed.Google Scholar
Sebta, Tetiana. 1996. “Ukraïns’ki muzei pid chas okupatsiï v roky druhoï svitovoï viiny (Ohliad arkhivnyukh materiali).” In Povernennia kul’turnoho nadbannia Ukraïny: problemy, zavdannia, repspektyvy, vyp. 6: (Materialy national’noho seminaru “Problemy povernennia national’no-kul’turnykh pam’iatok, vtrachenykh abo peremishchenykh pid chas druhoï svitovoï viiny,” Chernihiv, veresen 1994), 132–33. Kyiv: Natsional’na komisiia z pytan’ povernennia v Ukraïnu kul’turnykh tsinnosteĭ pry Kabineti Ministriv Ukraïny, Ministerstvo kul’tury Ukraïny, Instytut ukraïns’koï arkheohrafiï NAN Ukraïny.Google Scholar
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. 1934. Italiaansche kunst in nederlandsch bezit, Stedelijk museum, Amsterdam, 1 juli-1 october 1934. [Amsterdam, Druk de Bussy, 1934].Google Scholar
United States. National Archives and Records Administration. n.d. NARA Microfilm Publication T988, Prosecution Exhibits Submitted to the International Military Tribunal. Washington, DC, n.d. (RG 238), roll 5.Google Scholar
United States. National Archives and Records Administration. n.d. NARA Microfilm Publication T-1139. Records of the U.S. Nuernberg War Crimes Trials (RG 238): NG Series, 1933–1948. Microfilm Publication T1139. Washington, DC: NARA, roll 44.Google Scholar
. 2007. NARA Microfilm Publication M1944: Records of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historical Monuments in War Areas (The Roberts Commission) 1943–1946. Washington, DC: NARA (RG 239), roll 46.Google Scholar
. 2009. NARA Microfilm Publication M1946: Records Concerning the Central Collecting Points (“Ardelia Hall Collection”): Munich Central Collecting Point, 1945–1951. Washington, DC: NARA (RG 260), roll 145.Google Scholar
. Office of Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality. 1946–1948. Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. 10 vols. Washington, DC: GPO (Red Series).Google Scholar
. Office of Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality. The Trial of German Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 14 November 1945-October 1946. 42 vols. Nuremberg: IMT, 1947– 1949 (Blue Series).Google Scholar
Wermusch, Günther. 1991. Die Bernsteinzimmer-Saga. Spurren, Irrwege, Rätsel. Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag. Also available from GoogleBooks.Google Scholar
Wiedemann, Erich. 2000. “Operation Puschkin. Die Jagd nach dem Bernsteinzimmer (I).” Der Spiegel 2000, no. 48: 76–98. The second and third parts of Wiedermann’s article, Der Spiegel, 4 December 2000, deal only with the Amber Chamber and do not mention Popp: http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,106180-6,00.html.Google Scholar
Winters, Laurie. 2002. Leonardo da Vinci and the Splendor of Poland. A History of Collecting and Patronage. New Haven: Yale University Press; Milwaukee Art Museum.Google Scholar
Yeide, Nancy H. 2009. Beyond the Dreams of Avarice: The Hermann Goering Collection. Dallas: Laurel Publishing.Google Scholar
Zhyvkova, Olena. 2010. “Uriatovane uzbezhzhia.” Kul’tura i zhyttia 2010, no. 13–17.Google Scholar