Monuments Men

Tags

Braque, Matisse, Monuments Unit, Picasso, Robert Edsel, WWII

The Ghent altarpiece, one of the treasures stolen by the Nazis and retrieved by the Monuments Unit

My sister Ruth told me about this book after reading what I had written a few weeks ago about Anne Sinclair’s book (21 Rue la Boetie). It’s funny how things seem to connect with one another, but it turns out that the two books are on similar subjects, albeit from different angles. And both are linked to two subjects that have been fascinating me for quite some time — art, on the one hand, and the Second World War, on the other. Ruth had a version in Hebrew, but I preferred to read it in the original language.

So I ordered the book (‘Monuments Men’ by Robert Edsel) from Amazon, and found that once I started reading it I simply couldn’t put it down. Quite simply, it tells the tale of the special Allied unit set up during the Second World War whose job it was to protect the architectural and historic monuments and art treasures of Europe, both from the retreating German forces and from the advancing Allies. In addition, their mission also involved tracing and finding the art treasures of Europe that had been pillaged by the Germans and hidden in mines, castles, marshes and sundry other places throughout Germany and Austria. These also involved many treasures stolen from Jews (Anne Sinclair’s family, among others), and a few years ago the German government organised an exhibition of some of these unclaimed items, which later went on display at other sites around the world, including the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

According to Edsel, it all stemmed from Hitler’s desire to establish a museum in the Austrian town of Linz, his birthplace, that would house all the art treasures of Europe and outshine the vast treasurehouse museums of Paris, Florence, Rome, etc. In addition, fancying himself as something of an artist and an architect himself, he planned to rebuild Linz as a splendid urban site, and spent hours with his architect, Albert Speer, discussing the plans and inspecting the scale model of the city. If Hitler’s megalomaniac ideas had come to fruition not only would the entire character of Europe have changed, so would the face of world art.

For we know that the Nazis had firmly-entrenched ideas about what constituted ‘acceptable’ and ‘degenerate’ art — all Impressionist, post-Impressionist, Cubist and Expressionist art falling into the latter category. In Paris as well as in Germany many works of art by artists such as Picasso, Braque, Matisse and others were burned. Many others were used as currency in transactions of various kinds or secreted in hiding places to be extracted at a later stage. Of course, we mustn’t forget the cupidity of the Nazi leaders, and Hermann Goring, in particular, who appropriated art from every possible source in order to aggrandize his own private collection, which he housed in his various opulent domiciles in Germany and Austria.

So the small group of former museum employees and art specialists who comprised the ‘Monuments Unit’ were faced with a daunting task. In addition, they were not provided by the army with the equipment (support vehicles, office facilities, etc.) that would have made their task easier, often found themseves in dangerous parts of the war theatre and had to manage their affairs by being resourceful and determined.

Robert Edsel researched the subject for thirteen years, interviewing many of the individuals involved, managing to obtain private correspondence sent by many of them to their families back home and tracing the sequence of events with admirable application and perseverance. His book, which was published in 2010, reads like a detective story, and indeed much of the work of the unit involved work very like that of a detective, tracing the individuals connected with the Germans’ involvement in managing existing museums and stealing their contents. Just the packing and transportation of the works by the Germans (and later by the Monuments unit) involved an enormous amount of resourcefulness and organisation.

Fortunately, the Germans pedantically listed and catalogued their activities in this sphere, and it was possible, as the war ground to an end in 1945, to get hold of most of these, making the task of the Monuments unit slightly easier. Some former Nazi officials were prepared to cooperate in bringing the art treasures back into the public domain, though others were not. One was even prepared to fulfil Hitler’s ‘Nero decree’ (scorched earth policy) into operation and prepared to blow up one of the mines containing priceless works of art. This plan was foiled by other Germans, but only by a hair’s breadth.

The dedication and fortitude of the men of the unit, most of them accustomed to the stale air of libraries and museums rather than the battlefield, is something that must be admired, and it is to Robert Edsel’s great credit that he has brought their story out into the light of day.

21 Rue la Boetie, Paris

Tags

21 rue la Boetie, Anne Sinclair, Braque, DSK, Holocaust in France, Matisse, Nazi art theft, Paul Rosenberg, Picasso

In preparation for our summer in France, or perhaps simply because I like to think I can read books in French, I bought Anne Sinclair’s book, ’21 Rue la Boetie.’ Reading it took me into the fascinating world of French art in the twentieth century, with extensive ramifications regarding the Holocaust, the way the French colluded with the Germans in stealing works of art from Jews, and the efforts of the French Resistance to confound this. Having just finished reading the book, I feel I want to share what I have learned with others who may have similar interests.

By now everyone knows Anne Sinclair as the longsuffering wife of former IMF president, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who may or may not have done some naughty things with various women. But Anne Sinclair is a well-known journalist, television personality and writer in her own right, as well as being a very beautiful woman. In addition, she writes well and the tale she tells is well worth reading.

As she states in the preface to the book, which was published this year (2012), the trigger that set off her research into the background of her family, and specifically the history of her maternal grandparents, was what happened one day when a Parisian policeman stopped her in her car and asked her for her driving licence. As she had just moved house she didn’t have it on her, and was told to report with the document next day to the nearest offices of the Ministry of the Interior. Upon presenting herself there, she was shocked to be asked by an official: “Were all four of your grandparents born in France?” Conscious of her Jewish roots, Anne replied that it was that kind of question that was asked before people were packed into cattle trucks and sent off to concentration camps seventy years earlier. The official didn’t seem to understand, and that caused Anne to embark on many months of research in museums, official and family archives, to ascertain her family history.

Anne’s grandfather, Paul Rosenberg, was born in Poland in 1881 and came to France with his family as a child. His father was a wine merchant, but both he and his brother, Leonce, were art dealers. By touring the museums of Europe as a young man, Paul developed a good understanding of art, and used this to discover and befriend many young artists, among them Picasso, Braque and Matisse. He fostered their careers and dealt in their art, using his gallery at 21 rue la Boetie for this purpose. The building was an impressive one, with apartments for the family above the spacious ground floor, where exhibitions were held.

Paul Rosenberg was an almost exact contemporary of Picasso, and the two became great friends, referring to one another as ‘Rosi’ and ‘Pic’ in their correspondence. For some time Picasso lived next door to the Rosenbergs, when he was newly married to Olga, a dancer at Diaghilev’s ‘Ballets Russes.’ Anne Sinclair’s book contains photos of Picasso’s pictures of her grandfather and her mother, as well as one of herself as a teenager with the artist. When she was a child Picasso offered to paint her, too, but she protested, so the picture never came into existence.

In 1940, when the Germans invaded France, the Rosenberg family took refuge first in the South of France, then in Portugal, eventually managing to get to the USA, where Anne herself was born in 1943. Paul Rosenberg was forced to abandon his business in Paris and all the paintings he had acquired. These included many by leading Impressionists, as well as a large number by Picasso, Braque and Matisse. He had, however, managed to send a fair number of canvases to the USA, and so was able to open a gallery in New York.

Anne Sinclair describes in hair-raising detail how the Germans established their office for administering Jewish affairs in the building that had previously housed her grandfather’s art gallery, and how, aided and abetted by the French people who had been employed by the family, they systematically plundered all the art works, furniture, sculptures and objects that had adorned the premises. But as Paul Rosenberg himself said after the war, when the murderous criminality of the Nazis became common knowledge, the loss of his property was as nothing compared with the horrors the Nazis had inflicted on people of all nations, and especially on the Jews.

After the war Paul Rosenberg devoted considerable time and effort to tracing his plundered property and getting it restored to him. Many items had found their way into private hands and museums in various European countries, and although it was not always easy to get them to return the stolen property, on the whole he was successful in his quest. Many of the people concerned, especially those who had been employed by the family, were brought to trial and forced to confess their deeds. Anne makes no bones about mentioning them by name and calling them ‘miserable little thieves.’

In a sad little epilogue Anne mentions that she has recently had occasion to return to her beloved New York under tragic circumstances. Let’s hope that the peccadilloes of her husband, from whom she is now separated, will not overshadow the impact of her interesting and well-written book. I hope for the sake of all those who do not read French that the book has been, or soon will be, translated into English.