The National Archives
Search The National Archives
Advanced search
   
 

DocumentsOnline - download your history

Welcome (DocumentsOnline home page) Help - opens in a new window
Shopping basket
 
   
 

Quick Search
Go
Advanced Search

Quick links

 
Untitled Document
DocumentsOnline is soon to be replaced by Discovery. This means you can both search and download digitised documents, where available, from Discovery. Find out more.

Looted Art: Nazi–Era Cultural Property Project



Photographs of looted artwork, catalogue reference T 209/31

Records selection, introduction and descriptions reproduced by the kind permission of the

Introduction

Top of page top of page

You can now search and download selected records relating to the Nazi-Era Cultural Property Project.

The National Archives holds records which document the systematic looting of works of art and cultural property throughout Europe by Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. These records also record British and Allied efforts to prevent the looting and to retrieve and return the property to its rightful owners both during and after the Second World War. The works of art and cultural property were taken from both private and public collections, and included a broad range of objects: from paintings and drawings to books and libraries, antiquities, archives and historic documents, furniture, precious works of gold and silver, religious artefacts, sculpture and statuary, and more.

Through a variety of British government sources, The National Archives’ holdings provide information on the details, methods and organisation of the Nazi programme of plundering, including the systematic looting of Jewish households by Alfred Rosenberg’s Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) and other dedicated Nazi agencies, Hitler’s plans to establish a ‘Führermuseum’ of the seized art in his hometown of Linz and the role played by art dealers in securing and trading looted artworks in Nazi–occupied Europe.

In parallel to this, the documents detail the leading international role played by the British government to prevent and deter the looting and to ensure the restitution of the seized property to its rightful owners. This took various forms, such as issuing – with 17 other governments – the 1943 Inter–Allied Declaration against Acts of Dispossession committed in Territories under Enemy Occupation and Control, the creation of wartime and post–war restitution commissions, and the negotiation of policies to document and remedy the thefts of the Nazis. This is still an ongoing process today, almost 70 years after the end of the Second World War.

For further information view our in-depth introductionPDF file - opens in a new window.

What is the Nazi–Era Cultural Property Project?

Top of page top of page

The project is part of the International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi–Era Cultural Property, which is designed to extend public access to all relevant records. Records will be described and digitised and made available through a single internet portal. The project was established to fulfil the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi–Confiscated Art, the 2000 Vilnius Forum Declaration and the 2009 Terezin Declaration, in particular on the importance of making all such records publicly accessible. The Portal links researchers to archival materials from several countries. These consist of detailed descriptions and digital images of records that relate to cultural property that was stolen, looted, seized, forcibly sold, or otherwise lost during the Nazi-era. As a result of this collaboration between national archives and expert organisations in Belgium, France, Germany, Israel, Ukraine, the UK and the USA, families will be able to research their losses, provenance researchers can locate important documentation, and historians will have access to newly accessible materials on the history of this period.

Searching the records

Top of page top of page

You can search the record titles by entering a keyword into the search box. You can also narrow your search by entering a date range.

You may wish to view our pdf guidePDF file - opens in a new window for a list of useful search terms for finding records relating to Nazi-era cultural property.

Alternatively, you may wish to browse details of the whole collection.

Using quick search

The quick search box is near the top left of the page. To search by catalogue reference, type the complete catalogue reference into the quick search box. Remember to leave a space between the prefix letter/s and the numeric reference, for example, T 209/31.

What could these records help me to discover?

Top of page top of page

These records can assist individual families and researchers in their efforts to recover looted cultural property by providing detailed information on the processes of Nazi looting, the disposal of the seized works of art by the Nazis and by showing whether it was recovered and where it was returned after the end of the war. The records can also shed light on the development and implementation of Allied restitution policies and practices.

Looting and disposal process

Among the key elements of the looting and disposal process documented in this material are:

  • the sale in 1941 in the USA of looted works of art from Belgium and The Netherlands [FO371/26464]
  • the use of neutral countries in disposing of looted works of art in 1942 [FO 371/32221]
  • the looting of specific collections including the Czartoryski collection at Goluchow, Poland, the Goudstikker collection in The Netherlands and the Raczynski collections in Poznan and Rogalin, Poland [FO 371/36364]
  • old Master paintings looted in Europe being offered for sale in Mexico City in November 1943 [FO371/35451]
  • the seizure of Russian and Ukrainian art treasures in December 1943 [FO 371/36363]
  • a collection of photographs of works of art which were looted by the Nazis from Italian and French public and private collections and retrieved by the Allies in 1945 [T 209/29]
  • Himmler’s orders to the SS for the removal of all publicly-owned works of art from Florence in July 1944 [HW 1/3113]
  • the discovery of the ERR repository of books looted from French Jewish private collections and Russian State Libraries at the Tanzenberg monastery in the British zone of occupation of Austria in 1945 [FO 1020/2548-9, 2793-2880]
  • details of many other repositories of looted cultural property discovered as the Allies advanced into Europe over the spring and summer of 1945. These include the Alt Aussee salt mines in Austria, containing over 6,000 paintings destined for the Linz museum, and the Alto Adige repositories in Italy containing the works of art from the Florence public galleries removed in July 1944 [T 209/27]
  • the summer 1945 interrogation reports of prominent art dealers involved in the seizure and trading of looted artworks [T 209/29].

Prevention and restitution activites

Among the key elements of prevention and restitution activities featuring in the material are:

  • details of the War Loss and Damages Register set up by the UK in September 1943 for the registration of claims for losses and damages suffered by Allied nationals and neutrals [FO 371/36365]
  • the records of the Macmillan Committee (1944-1946), a specialist advisory body to the British government established to support the post-war restitution process [T 209/1-39]
  • reports of the work of the Inter-Allied Vaucher Commission [1944-1945] which, acting on information supplied by different national commissions, operated as a central bureau in London for information on looted objects [T209/5]
  • the reports of Wing–Commander Douglas Cooper of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Sub–Commission on the activities of the German Kunstschutz in Italy 1943–1945 [WORK 82/32-41 and PRO 30/75/44], and, in 1945, on looted works of art transferred to Switzerland and efforts to persuade the Swiss government to prevent the concealment of looted works of art found on Swiss territory [T 209/25]
  • the work of the Reparations, Deliveries and Restitution Division of the Control Commission for Germany [British Element] from 1945 onwards in the handling of claims, recoveries and restitutions of works of art looted from several European countries including the Channel Islands [FO 1057/236], Czechoslovakia [FO 1057/219, 221, 223], The Netherlands [FO 1057/87-144] and Yugoslavia [FO 1057/145]
  • the work of the Central Claims Registry for the British zone of Germany [FO 1036/864] and of the Supreme Restitution Court in Herford, Germany, both set up in the late 1940s [FO 1060 and 371/137582-4].

Please note: FO 371, FO 1020, FO 1036, FO 1037, FO 1060, PRO 30 and HW 1 are not due to be released until later this year.

What do the records look like?

Top of page top of page

Photograph of a version of Raphael’s ‘Virgin with Child’ by an unknown artist, looted from the National Museum, Naples. Catalogue reference T209/31

The records include over 900 files from a variety of government departments and officials. These include the Foreign Office, the Treasury and the War Office, as well as the British Council, the Cabinet Office, the Colonial Office, the Government Communications Headquarters, the Ministry of Education and private papers of government officials. Spanning the period from 1939 to 1961, they provide a wide range of material, such as correspondence, telegrams, written records of conversations, field reports, minutes and agendas of meetings, press articles, texts of Parliamentary questions, investigations of monuments and historic buildings, forms for the restitution of claimed property and inventories of looted works of art. Photographs of looted artworks can also occasionally be found.

Many of the records contain acronyms. See our pdf guidePDF file - opens in a new window for definitions of some of the acronyms found in the records.

Further research

Top of page top of page

General Reading

Hector Feliciano, The Lost Museum. The Nazi Conspiracy To Steal The World’s Greatest Works Of Art, New York 1997

Charles de Jaeger, The Linz File: Hitler’s Plunder of Europe’s Art, Exeter 1981.

Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa. The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War, New York 1994.

Jonathan Petropoulos, Art as Politics in the Third Reich, North Carolina 1996.

Jonathan Petropoulos, The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany, London 2000.

Online Resources

Finding Aids

You may wish to find out more about what’s available from DocumentsOnline

Acknowledgements

Records selection, introduction and descriptions reproduced by the kind permission of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe. Special thanks to Diane Boucher, Bianca Gaudenzi, Toby Simpson and Hester Vaizey.

The National Archives gives no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of the information provided.