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VIKTOR BALDIN DIED

On January 4th, 1997 Viktor Baldin died in Moscow. As an officer of the Red Army in 1945 he was at the castle Karnzow, where the "Kunsthalle Bremen" had deposited drawings to protect them. Soldiers found these drawings in the cellar and took them away. Baldin realized the value of the drawings and tried to get official assistance to recover them. As this could not be achieved he took 362 drawings and 2 paintings back to Moscow. At the end of 1947 he gave them to the State Research Museum of Architecture Named after A.V. Shtchusev. In 1963 he was appointed director of this museum. In 1989 he publicly announced the existence of these drawings and paintings in the Soviet Union. Since then these art works are known as the so-called "Baldin Collection". Viktor Baldin made great efforts to return the drawings and paintings he recovered in Karnzow to the owner, the Kunsthalle Bremen. Viktor Baldin visited Bremen several times. 1995 the Baldin Collection was exhibited at the Eremitage. President Yeltsin assured him, that "the drawings saved by you will go back to Bremen soon". But Viktor Baldin died without having been able to fulfill his wish to return the drawings to the "Kunsthalle".

ONE GUTMAN CASE SETTLED IN U.S.

The heirs of Friedrich and Louise Gutmann - Nick and Simon Goodman and Lili Gutmann - are trying to achieve the return of artworks belonging to the family which were lost during World War II. In March this year the case of a painting by Sandro Botticelli entitled "Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap", dated 1484, was solved. The painting was sold by Sotheby´s for $ 650,000. The two parties agreed on a financial settlement for the heirs.

During World War II the Gutmanns lost not only their property but also their lives. Friedrich Gutmann was beaten to death at the concentration camp in Theresienstadt, Louise Gutmann died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

Two more of their artworks reappeared after a long time and are now object of legal actions. David C. Searle bought a monotype by Edgar Degas, "Landscape with Smokestacks". It seems that neither he nor the Chicago Art Institute, to whom he left the task and whose trustee David C. Searle is, carried out decent research about the history of this monotype. On the list of previous owners the name of Hans Wendland can be found. Wendland made huge profits during the war by selling looted art and also made paintings available for the private collections of Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring. The lawsuit is not yet settled. The third case concerns a Renoir - "Appletree in Bloom" - which was sold by Sotheby´s in 1969. The family required to be informed about the identity of the private collector who bought it. A New York judge ordered Sotheby´s to turn over the records. The attorney for the Gutmann´s heirs is Thomas R. Kline from Andrews & Kurth.

WALTER FARMER AWARDED

On May 5th, 1997 Walter Farmer, the initiator of the "Wiesbaden Manifesto" in 1945 (see "Spoils of War" no. 2, p. 53), received another award in the Federal Republic of Germany. In Fürth he was honored with the "Humanitärer Preis der deutschen Freimaurer" (Humanitarian Award of the German Freemasons). The laudatio was held by Klaus Goldmann, Museum of Pre- and Early History in Berlin and expert on the question of art looting related to World War II. Klaus Goldmann stressed the importance of the Manifesto and the significant role that Walter Farmer played in it. According to Goldmann, the "Wiesbaden Manifesto was written with better phrasing than found in any international treaty relating to cultural heritage of a nation". Walter Farmer accepted the award in gratitude and in memory of General Eisenhower: "I am proud to honor him as I am proud to have served under him".

OBJECTS OF THE AMBER ROOM FOUND IN GERMANY

Two objects of the legendary Amber Room surprisingly appeared in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Amber Room was a gift from the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm I. for the Russian Tsar Peter the Great. It was brought to Petersburg in 1716. In 1755 it came to Tsarskoye Selo near Petersburg, where it was built in at the Palace of Katherine. In 1941 German soldiers dismantled it and transported it to Königsberg, where the trace of the Amber Room is lost. On May 13, 1997 the police in Bremen secured a mosaic which is supposed to belong to the Amber Room. The authenticity of the mosaic (measurements 55 x 70,5 cm) is going to be examined. The present owner, who inherited the mosaic 12 years ago and who claims having received knowledge about the provenance only in 1990, wanted to sell the object. Instead of the buyer the police arrived. Obviously the mosaic, which is one of four mosaics from the Amber Room, took a different route from the rest of the looted objects. The father of the present owner accompanied the transport to Königsberg and took the mosaic in an unobserved moment.

Another object of the Amber Room is said to be in Germany. A carpenter from Leipzig claims that 18 years ago he restored a chest of drawers, richly ornamented with marquetry. Afterwards it was sold to West Germany. The carpenter worked during that time for the "Kunst- und Antiquitäten GmbH" (Art and Antiquity Ltd.), which belonged to the imperium of Schalck-Golodkowski, currency provider of the former German Democratic Republic. He is convinced of the authenticity of the chest of drawers. Its present location is unknown.

GERMAN FREEMASON DOCUMENT FOUND IN U.S.

In the Library of Congress of the U.S. the "Freimaurer Schutzbrief" (Freemasons Letter of Protection) of Friedrich the Great, signed on July 16th, 1774 to the Grand Land Lodge of Germany was found. The "Schutzbrief" was taken by an US officer and freemason in Thuringia from castle Burgk. The Department of State approached the editor of the Freemasons periodical "Eleusis" in Germany to learn about the owner of this document, which is agreed to be the Grand Land Lodge of Germany. The "Schutzbrief" will soon be returned in an official ceremony, probably at castle Burgk.

UNUSUAL RECOVERY OF ARTWORKS IN DARMSTADT

The recent return of several works of art to the Hesse State Museum Darmstadt exemplifies the variety of historical backgrounds subsumed under war losses and the zealous search of the Hessian museum staff (cf. "Spoils of War", no.3). Not from abroad but from the neighboring state Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate) did eight paintings return in this particular case. From 1816 to 1945 the province Rhine-Hesse was part of Hesse-Darmstadt being Darmstadt its capital. During this period a number of works were loaned to the State Department of Rhine-Hesse and to the city of Mainz. In 1909 alone 17 paintings were loaned to the Provincial Administration in Mainz to decorate its chambers. Two of these were already reported missing in 1929. In 1945, after the air raids on Mainz, the other works were declared war losses. One painting, however, had not even been missed by the Darmstadt Museum because the loan records had been destroyed.

Magdalene. Oil on Tempera on Wood, ca. 1500

The creation of the two federal states Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse and the ensuing institutional separation hindered the post-war search for the lost treasures, and it is only during the last decade that a fruitful cooperation has developed between museum staffs in the two states. Based on this cooperation two altar pieces with depictions of the saints Elisabeth, Barbara, Magdalene and Wendelin (South German, ca. 1500), "The Birth of Adonis" (Italian, ca. 1600), "The Walk to Emmaus" (probably Dutch), "Fox, Shotgun and Dead Poultry" (German, 18th century), "Waterfalls in Tivoli" (German, ca. 1800), copy after Rembrandt's "Self-portrait with Helmet" (German, 19th century) and "Portrait of the Grandduchess Mathilde of Hesse-Darmstadt" (German, 19th century) could be located and finally returned. Having at last been returned, the paintings will be restored and scientifically researched. Although the identification process is not yet complete, "The Birth of Adonis" will probably be attributed to Adam Elsheimer.
The successful return of these paintings is proof of the urgent need to research the history of cultural institutions and of the requirement for a profound differentiation in the way war losses are registered.