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Looted Polish paintings found and return to Poland


Borrka  37 | 592  
26 Nov 2010 /  #1
Nothing new as a matter of fact - once again a work of art looted in occupied Poland turns up in Germany.
Polish "daub", grandfather Helmut brought from General Government, hidden for years somewhere in the basement, sees light again.
It may bring some Euros for his family in need !

Mrs Eva Aldag from auction house Aldag "didn't know" the painting can be of any value.
Sure, it only about 500 000 Euros LOL.

thenews.pl/international/artykul144312_nazi-plundered-painting-turns-up-in-hamburg-auction.html

But look !
It's already "zurückgezogen" !

lot-tissimo.com/de/cmd/d/o/52.179.1/auk/179/p/1/?PHPSESSID=mh10j7c7d5g8ir8ukt08n9jih2
Bratwurst Boy  9 | 11623  
26 Nov 2010 /  #2
Poland still keeps looted german art...and lots of it!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlinka_(art_collection)

The Berlinka is known to contain over 300,000 manuscripts by individuals such as Martin Luther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Friedrich Schiller. It also contains linguistic studies by the Grimm Brothers[4]

We should make an official exchange...Thank you very much!
David_18  65 | 966  
26 Nov 2010 /  #3
BB i agree with you that the Berlinka should be returned to its rightfull owners but will the poles ever get back what the nazis looted and destroyed?

We lost millions of manuscripts and thousands of historical buildings.

The favourite place to loot artifacts and other historical and cultural stuff for a German officer was not in a French Palace, it was in the Polish ones due to the fact that the poles were famous art collectors.

When will the former polish landowners get back their belongings that were stolen from them by the nazis and the soviets?
OP Borrka  37 | 592  
26 Nov 2010 /  #4
We should make an official exchange.

Unfortunately not possible - stolen pieces are in Germany in private hands and still hidden.
Check your Opa's coal cellar pls.
Bratwurst Boy  9 | 11623  
26 Nov 2010 /  #5
Well, only his iron cross could be found, sorry...he got it probably as he rolled his tanks over polish cavalry!
David_18  65 | 966  
26 Nov 2010 /  #6
It's german landowners who lost everything in the East.

Impossible to compare it to the polish losses.

But yes i agree with you. Even though many of the ruling classes in silesia had polish ancestry.

Much of it were lost in the hands of the soviets. many castles and manors around Poland and Germany were looted by the soviets. I seriously can't even imagine how much is hidden in Russia today. And i guess i will never find it out either.
OP Borrka  37 | 592  
26 Nov 2010 /  #7
only his iron cross could be found, sorry.

No need to be sorry.
As a child I used to play with German medals your heroes lost while escaping Poland !
Ohne Flax !
Bratwurst Boy  9 | 11623  
26 Nov 2010 /  #8
I seriously can't even imagine how much is hidden in Russia today. And i guess i will never find it out either.

Lots of it is still rotting in Siberia! The Russians are still all Soviets in this regard. Recently there had been a joint exhibition of german art in St. Petersburg.

Only after much fight over years and only heavily guarded. They don't even think about it giving something back...They don't really like hearing it "Beutekunst"! ;)

But that's how we know that there are still endless counts of art are still somewhere hidden in trains in Siberia.

As a child I used to play with German medals your heroes lost while escaping Poland !
Ohne Flax !

Yeah...must be the lack of own medals...german art, german medals...what would you do without the Germans!
I bet the polish art you so bemoan was only a gathering of foreign (german?) art itself...
OP Borrka  37 | 592  
26 Nov 2010 /  #9
what would you do without the Germans!

I would drive French cars !
Chemikiem  
13 Oct 2015 /  #10
Merged: Polish painting, looted twice, finally returned to Poland

First looted by the Nazis from Poland's National Museum, the 1728 oil painting ' Portrait of a Young Man ' by Krzysztof Lubieniecki, spent 70 years in Columbus, Ohio, after being looted a second time by a US serviceman who took it home after the war.

Ironically it was the serviceman's son, Bob Whittmann, who started the investigation, and who contacted the FBI who tracked it down.
Wittmann travelled to Warsaw last week to attend the unveiling of the painting in Warsaw's National Museum.

theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/13/polish-painting-looted-nazis-returned-from-ohio
Dougpol1  29 | 2497  
13 Oct 2015 /  #11
First looted by the Nazis from Poland's National Museum, the 1728 oil painting ' Portrait of a Young Man ' by Krzysztof Lubieniecki, spent 70 years in Columbus, Ohio,

Fantastic. If it belonged to the nation it bloody well should be returned. Of course, if a Turner had been looted, then we British would have to declare war.

Fortunately, Turner did the right thing and bequeathed his talent to the nation, and we enjoy it today for free. Unfortunately the Poles were naive and didn't think to take their national heritage with them when the establishment fled to Romania. Anybody caught auctioning Polish looted art should be taken outside and shot.
MediaWatch  10 | 942  
15 Oct 2015 /  #12
I'm glad to see they were returned :)
Chemikiem  
3 Mar 2017 /  #13
More looted Polish paintings returned. This time though they were returned by the son of a Nazi governor whose wife stole them from the National Museum in Kraków:-

theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/feb/26/nazi-art-stolen-poland-returned-horst-waechter
Lyzko  41 | 9542  
3 Mar 2017 /  #14
Greiser, Gauleiter of the Wartheland region, was known as a bit of an art collector, not to mention 'bon vivant/butcher'! Frank of the Generalgouvernement too wasn't much of a slouch either, I'm told, and knew his stuff where painting and sculpture were concerned:-)

Most top Nazis were, what we'd term, "cultured individuals" aka Ribbentrop, Speer etc. Poland became both their playground, their breadbasket and, oh, let's not forget, their killing field, above all!!

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