Apart from via "official channels", monuments also vanished from Czech and Moravian territory as the result of various other activities directed at former state and private collections; the works of art owned by numerous noble families probably provided the greatest attraction, whose property was subject to compulsory administration by the occupying force. The Gestapo was evidently the most industrious in this respect; they regularly confiscated the property of victims of interrogation and imprisonment; a large amount of property was also acquired with the mass confiscation of Jewish assets. If we add to this the customary presentation of cultural and historical art works to Nazi chiefs and the private collections amassed by large numbers of officers and officials from the occupying administration, it is hardly surprising that the plunder of Czech cultural heritage was extremely widespread.

The first acquisition of artworks from this country occurred on March 15, 1939, intended for Hitler himself for whom a number of rare tapestries from Prague Castle were "packed ready for transport". While the Ftihrer made assurances that all cultural and historical monuments would remain in the Protectorate, further looting was to follow. During the initial phase the appropriation of historical monuments and works of art from this country was intended to supplement the Prague collections. The Nazi chiefs believed that art works from Prague should not be confiscated. Once the country was occupied, Prague was considered one of the capitals of the Third Reich, thus her cultural wealth now belonged to Hitler's Germany.

During the occupation four institutions in the Protectorate were mainly responsible for the systematic exploration into the cultural heritage of Bohemia and Moravia:Heeresmuseum Prag, Einsatzstab Rinnebach, Sammlung F.J. Rehse and representatives from the Sonderauftrag Linz. Archive sources available today, however, tell us very little about the enterprises of these organizations. The activities initiated by the Heeresmuseum are best documented due to the fact that a fragment of its archives has survived in the Military History Museum.

Its task was to concentrate and administer all military monuments in the Protectorate with separate divisions for archive material, libraries and museum administration, namely the "Heeresarchiv", "Heeresbiicherei" and "Heeresmuseum" (Military Museum).

With time it became clear that these divisions could not be run from one center alone, thus an independent department was established for each group.

The Heeresmuseum became independent in the spring of 1940 and it assumed ownership of both Czechoslovak military museums: the Museum of the Liberation Monument and the Military History Museum in Prague's Invalidovna district. Dr Jan Josef Morper (the former curator of the Bamberg museum and author of a lengthy monograph on the Cernin Palace in Prague) took charge of the museum collections in June 1940, replaced on July 26, 1940 by lieutenant-colonel Rudolf Polzer as museum director. The Heeresmuseum Prag was controlled by the director of the German military museums ("Chefder Heeresmuseen") in Berlin in his position as high-ranking general.

During the latter half of 1941 the management of the Heeresmuseum 1945 managed to submit a claim for the acquisition of the Schwarzenberg Museum at Hradcany until 1945 (the Military History Museum remains here to this day).

The Heeresmuseum immediately began developing its immense collection program which was fundamentally oriented towards the confiscation or similar acquisition of military objects. The museum's program chiefly centered on earlier history (16th-19th centuries) and its enterprises expanded with the direct support and cooperation of political and administrative bodies (Landrat and Oberlandrat divisions) which secured the depositions and contents of museum and private collections from different regions for the needs of the center. All "undisputed property of military administration" was moved to Prague. Since the Reich's military administration considered itself the rightful successor not only to the Czechoslovak army but also to the former Austro-Hungarian army, claims were also made for objects in the possession of the former Austro-Hungarian regiments, a great extent of which were deposited in various local and regional museums after 1918. In cases where historical material could not be taken into possession, the objects had to be submitted as museum deposits in the form of compulsory loans.

Available sources clearly show that, as early as the autumn of 1940 when the first acquisition campaign reached its peak, many other objects disappeared from this country through Gestapo channels. Proof is provided in a special communication from the Director of the Museum of the Reichsprotektorat office where he points to the caprice of prominent crime officers which led to the confiscation of property belonging to detainees, in particular old weapons, paintings, books and archive material, which found its way into the Reich and Austria and, in so doing, managed to evade registration control.

In 1941, a period dominated by German military success, the Heeresmuseum directed its attention towards another group of buildings from which it intended to appropriate objects found in assorted collections. It dispatched a team of experts to examine collections housed in castles, churches, museums and private estates. At that time its investigations were concentrated chiefly on well-known military-historical works of art kept in castles and museums. The most precious exhibits were chosen for the museum and contracts for long-term loans were concluded with their owners (under coercion in the majority of cases). Thus in 1941 the Heeresmuseum became the new home for 3,280 artworks from Konopiste, 363 from Roudnice, 45 from Chropyne, 684 from Zbiroh, 102 from Opocno, 36 from the Palace of the Knights of St. John in Prague, the field altar of Prince Eugene de Savoie-Carignan, along with many examples of silver and gilded vessels used during mass, vestments from the Pardubice museum and a number of other objects.

The Heeresmuseum adopted a different approach for art objects kept at the former Liberation Monument. Most of the paintings were offered via a written order from the garrison for permanent loan, thus a large number of originals by artists from the First Republic found their way into offices, dormitories, officers' clubs and private flats. Many paintings were presented as gifts. Metal objects - miscellaneous competition awards - were passed on to the Hitlerjugend and the Curatorium, others were reserved for the Reich metal collection. Conversely, the fragments of documents from the Heeresmuseum contain a number of records on antique weapons, historical books and sundry objects given to the Museum by the Gestapo.

Paradoxically, the active endeavors of the Heeresmuseum Prag stopped short three days before its planned gala opening on June 3, 1944. On the last day of May, an order arrived from Hitler's military headquarters to close down the Museum. The reason for this measure lay in the reluctance on the part of the Museum's directors to work with Dr Rupprecht from Vienna on the selection of exhibits for the Son-derauftrag Linz (see below).

The Museum was shut down after its closure, although Nazi dignitaries would be shown round the Palace from time to time. There was no particular hurry with its liquidation since the fate of the Museum's contents had yet to be resolved. The initial idea had been to return all the deposits to their original locations, particularly the castle collections. The other exhibits were to be transferred to the Heeresmuseum in Vienna, however, their transportation proved something of a problem: According to precise calculations, transportation by train would have required approximately 200 carriages which, in 1944, would have meant the use of roughly 5-7 freight trains. Further setbacks arose in connection with the production of the transport crates and the difficulties in securing the necessary amount of wood-wool for packing the exhibits. Thus the project was rejected by the economic division as unworkable. In light of the worsening transport situation and lack of necessary materials, it was decided that the safest option would be to leave the collections in Prague, also since the capital had not been bombed by the allied airforce.

Despite this decision, however, shelters ("Ausweichstellen") were chosen to safeguard objects of considerable material and artistic value - within the Protectorate, objects from the Heeresmuseum were located in the castles at Zbraslav and Doksany near Terezin; in the Reich refuges were found in the Banz monastery near Bamberg and Dorfchemnitz castle near Dippoldiswalde (outside Dresden).

In the spring of 1941 Rosenberg's organization, initially limited to the occupied territories of Western Europe, expanded eastwards. Rosenberg established other Einsatzstabs in these regions, each with their own directors. He appointed Gerhard Utikal, until this time Reichsfiihrer of services, as head of all Einsatzstabs and staff director at his own Einsatzstab head office. Rosenberg's organization also employed political leaders from the Nazi party and other persons of influence. They wore a brown uniform which distinguished them as members of a special unit, however, they remained under military control, directly answerable to military generals who enjoyed the highest authority in the occupied countries.

On May 1, 1941 the German field marshal and chairman of the ministerial defence council Hermann Göring issued a command directed at "action group" staff: "I welcome the decision of Reichsführer Rosenberg to establish action groups in all occupied territories which are to secure and transport to Germany all scientific material and cultural estate from the regions in question. All party, state and military agencies are called upon to provide all possible support and assistance to comply with these entitlements..."

A year later, on March 1, 1942 Hitler himself issued a special edict in which he stated the following: "...therefore I have entrusted Reichsfiihrer A. Rosenberg (...) with the task (...) of examining libraries, archives, lodges and other ideological and cultural facilities of all kinds in accordance with the relevant material with view to their confiscation (...) for subsequent scientific study. Cultural estate in the possession or ownership of Jews and property whose origins cannot be verified as pure will be governed by the same procedure...", in other words, also property subjected to compulsory administration.

The Einsatzstab Rinnebach in this country came under the jurisdiction of the Reichsprotektor in Prague. This group maintained a prominent position within the state organization set up to seek out and catalogue cultural monuments in Bohemia and Moravia. Testimony of this is contained in a letter from the head of the German chancellery and Reichsminister Dr Lammers dated June 12, 1943 in which he notifies the group via the Reichsprotektor in Prague that "it is the Ftihrer's wish that no decision be made concerning the confiscated and expropriated collections of paintings, books, furniture, carpets, precious stones, weapons, coins and medals until the Führer has the opportunity to decide upon their fate himself."

As fragmentary documents from the Heeresmuseum show, this group transferred to the Prague museum certain works of art which were not essential for their long-term plans.

The organization continued to work unimpeded in this country during the period October 1941 to June 1943. Surviving documents confirm that it targeted collections found on noble and Jewish estates in Bohemia and Moravia which were subject to compulsory administration; such documents have been found at the following castles and estates: Bezdekov, Bucovice, Castolovice, Dobhs, Dymokury, Habrovany, Holesov, Horin, Chlumec nad Cidlinou, Jaromerice, Konopiste, Kos-telec nad Orlici, Kromehz, Kunstat, Libechovice, Melnik, Opocno, Orlik, Oslavany, Rajec-Jestrebi, Roudnice, Rychnov nad Kneznou, Tele, Troubsko, Zasmuky, Zbiroh, Zeiena Hora and Zdar nad Sazavou.

In his report to SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Fischer dated June 1, 1943, Captain Rin-nebach announces the completion of the first stage of the inventories compiled at castles in Bohemia and Moravia. In his conclusion he states that "a large depository has been set up at Zbraslav castle to receive valuable museum pieces from Czech and Moravian castles and a large proportion of these cultural treasures from the Czech-Moravian environment (Konopiste and others) has already been installed here."

Another report from June 16, 1943 further states that "approximately 3,500 paintings, miniatures, sculptures, copper-engravings, pieces of furniture, and roughly 1,000 weapons, books and documents from libraries and archives have been transferred to the Regional Gallery and other institutions". The report also contains information about some 85 paintings, tapestries and graphics (Durer, Rembrandt, Breughel, van Dyck, Lucas Cranach, Paolo Veronese, Pettenkofer, Moritz von Schwindt, Spitzweg, Waldmuller and many others) from the castles of Oslavany and Habrovany which were moved by the Karl Herzig company to St Luke's Gallery in Vienna. The report ends with a note specifying that approximately 50 objects were to be included in the relevant inventories at a later date.

J. Gresser, a colleague of Rehse, worked in the Protectorate in 1941; he obtained from the administrator of confiscated legionnaires' property ("Der Treuhander fur das beschlagnahmte Vermogen der Legionars-Organisationen") SS Obersturm-bannfuhrer Dr Eilers (based in Saska street no. 44, Prague XIX) authorization to clear out ("ausraumen"!) all legionnaires' museums in the Protectorate and ship these exhibits to Munich. The museums were then sealed and the keys were generally handed in to offices of the local Gestapo.

The seizure of art collections thus acquired a fairly uniform character. After the Gestapo opened a museum, a team of largely Czech workers would be instructed to pack up the entire contents into crates which were then sent by rail to Munich. Over a fairly short period the same procedure was adopted in museums in Olomouc, Kromeriz, Brno, Prostejov and evidently in a number of other regions. In the Pizen museum, not only were legionnaires' exhibits singled out for confiscation but also over a hundred historical painted targets belonging to the Metropolitan Shooting Corps; other historical monuments were also removed from the museum in Hradec Kralove.

The activities of this Munich division were evidently a private concern of the NSDAP since the official state administration of the Protectorate, in particular, the military plenipotentiary, was unaware of this method of appropriating historical and military monuments. The military executive Dr Morper from the Heeresmuseum Prag discovered the activities ofJ. Gresser by chance during a business trip to Munich when he decided to pay a private visit to the Rehse collections in the Munich Residence and found several legionnaires' and Austro-Hungarian flags and banners from Bohemia and Moravia.

Investigating the circumstances under which these objects had found their way into the NSDAP collections, he uncovered various other facts and, after his return to Prague, submitted a report to his military superiors. The military plenipotentiary in the Protectorate subsequently took the matter to the supreme command of the armed forces (OKW) to request that the objects be returned to the Protectorate. What steps were taken after that time and whether any of the exhibits were returned during the occupation is not clear from any archive sources available to us today.

The first commissioner entrusted with the selection of paintings and sculptures for the Linz museum was the director of the Dresden gallery Dr Posse; after his death in 1942 he was replaced by Prof. Dr Voss who also succeeded him as director of the gallery. Other commissioners - the Fuhrer's special advisers - were appointed during the course of the War according to the rate at which it was necessary to filter through the immense wealth plundered all over Europe. Prof. Dr Rupprecht, director of the weapons collection at the Museum of Art History in Vienna, was chosen to examine and classify the valuable weapons and decorative art objects, Dr Dworschak, director of the same museum took charge of the coins and medals, and Dr Wolfshardt from Grundlsee in Austria sifted through the books and archivalia.

From the Czech environment Dr Posse chose panel paintings by the Master of the Vyssi Brod cycle and the Zavis Cross owned by the monastery in Vyssi Dvur, and paintings from the Lobkowicz collection in Roudnice; Dr Dworschak took away the coin collection from Zbiroh castle - all these fine examples would later grace the rooms in the Fuhrer's museum.

A whole chapter would be required to describe the industry of Prof. Rupprecht, brought to our knowledge again thanks to documents from the Heeresmuseum Prag. Rupprecht appeared in Prague sometime during the autumn of 1943, shortly after the issue of a special edict from the German Interior Minister notifying all administrations in the territory of the Reich - thus also the state minister in Bohemia and Moravia -, that the right to dispose of confiscated art collections reserved for the Fuhrer was also extended to historical weapon collections, including all relevant writings on the subject (books, archive material etc.). The Fuhrer appointed Prof. Rupprecht plenipotentiary in matters concerning the arrangements to be made for the collections before a decision was reached as to their future use.

Rupprecht established his right to act in Hitler's name in Prague and began to take an interest in exceptional works of art in Czech collections. He was particularly intrigued by the castle collections from Konopiste, Roudnice, Opocno and Hluboka, parts of which had already been deposited in the Heeresmuseum Prag. At the beginning of 1944 he sent his associate, Dr Schedelmann, to Prague to supervise the completion of his photographic archive; the prints were made by the firm Stenc.

During his trip in March 1944 Rupprecht visited state minister K.H. Frank with whom he discussed his assignment to gather objects for the Linz museum. One must state here that K.H. Frank, the Reich Protector and their advisers in matters of art and history, especially employees of the Heeresmuseum, rejected on principle every attempt to take the collections out of the Protectorate, reiterating the earlier pledge that all cultural and historical works of art would remain in the Protectorate.

After Rupprecht's departure, the Prague deputy for the German Ministry of Education, Dr Booth, informed Colonel Polzer, director of the Heeresmuseum, of Rupprecht's plans to obtain an inventory of the transferred collections and advised him to report the case to his superior immediately. Polzer reported the affair without delay to his chief in Vienna, General Brand, commander of the German military museums and declared that he would not issue any inventories. He also wrote that "...since one can assume that Prof. Rupprecht will acquaint the Fuhrer with the onesided facts of the case at the earliest opportunity, I urge you to take the appropriate steps to prevent this man from carrying out his intentions".

We could not ascertain what steps General Brand did take; the facts indicate that Prof. Rupprecht's position was not affected in any way and the whole episode took a quite different turn: Colonel Polzer was sent into retirement and, on Hitler's express orders, the Heeresmuseum was shut down just before it was to have been officially opened.

Prof. Rupprecht subsequently received the required inventories, he photographed and inspected the collections and prepared the exhibits for relocation. He was supported in his efforts by the commander of the armed forces, Marshal Keitel, and Hitler's first secretary, Reichsfuhrer Bormann. Both issued orders on September 25, 1944 - Keitel to General Brand and Bormann to K.H. Frank - that the Fuhrer requested all museum exhibits deposited in the Prague Heeresmuseum from various collections throughout the Protectorate be delivered to Prof. Rupprecht without delay.

At the end of October that same year, Rupprecht traveled to Prague to supervise the packing and transfer of the selected works. By the end of November he had removed from the Protectorate over 1,000 examples of valuable weapons, arms and military effects.

This brief analysis of the situation facing our cultural heritage during the Second World War does not contain, nor can it contain - in view of the current stage of research - an accurate description of all activities leading to the confiscation, concentration and removal of cultural movable assets from this country - namely the former Protectorate of Bohmen and Mahren. It does clarify to a considerable extent, however, the principles and mechanisms employed by the Nazi machinery. The fate of the movable cultural heritage located in regions relinquished to Germany after the Munich Agreement in September 1938, i.e. the former Sudetenland, remains unresolved. I hope that here, too, we will encounter some surprising facts in the near future.

A repatriation (restitution) commission was founded at the end of June 1945 comprising representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Relations, Defense, Education and Culture. Generally speaking, these institutions conducted their investigations almost independently in their efforts to compile lists of misplaced objects and subsequently to discover their location.

The first practical steps towards the restitution of our cultural heritage were taken by the Defense Ministry headquarters in cooperation with the Military History Institute, the Military History Museum (lieutenant colonel Vrecko and the department for Allied Army Relations (captain Suk). The first restitution mission - comprising Vreeko and Suk - left for the American occupation zone on September 21, 1945, a trip which resulted in the recovery of historical weapons from Banz monastery and nine paintings by the Master of the Vyssi Brod Cycle from Munich which were brought to Prague on October 13. The most valuable gain from the first trip, however, were the contacts established with American occupation bureaus.

During the second trip made by the two men in November 1945, the purpose of which was to discuss with American organizations the draft of the "Plan for practical procedures to be undertaken for the restitution of Czechoslovak cultural effects", talks were also held with view to sending a Czechoslovak government representative delegated to the American command. On the basis of this agreement and a further request from the American bodies that Czech delegates be sent out, a five-member mission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was dispatched on January 17, 1946 which included Dr Winkler from the Ministry of Education (art historian) and captain Suk. This journey signified the launch of the Czechoslovak Mission for Restitution to the CSR whose task was to gather information on stolen works of art in Germany and to request repatriation papers from the relevant Czechoslovak institutions, essential for the issue of the recovered objects. This mission worked closely with the American organization MFA&A (Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section) which operated within the American secret service.

Vrecko's team continued with the restitution program in 1946. In May Vrecko brought to Prague the Zavis Cross from Vyssi Brod and part of the Konopisti collections: Renaissance weapons and arms, tapestries and paintings filling a total of 42 large crates. 14 of these crates were found in the salt mines in Alt-Aussee and 28 were discovered in Salzburg. In July Vrecko's team arrived in Prague from Vienna with 22 crates and 17 parcels of additional art works from the Konopiste collection.

These are examples of the most important restitution projects undertaken shortly after the war. Without doubt, other missing objects were also returned to the Republic, however, further research should be carried out in the near future in order to provide a precise account of these discoveries.

The fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, celebrated all over the world in a new international political environment, particularly due to the radical changes occurring in Central and Eastern Europe, gave all the more validity to the restitution process. Greater access to archives today affords a much more detailed study of relevant documents than was possible during the late 1940s and the period of the growing cold war.

Articles appearing in the Czech and foreign press continue to remind us of unsolved or muted problems. They refer particularly to the fate of Jewish property and caches of documents, valuables and works of art. The restitution of art works also continues to be the subject of debate. Let us mention at random just a few themes which have recently been examined: the Jewish gold in Swiss banks, the fate of Jewish property in Bohemia and Moravia, the return of the so-called Troja treasure from the former USSR to Germany and the Stechovice treasure.

A number of cultural and historical objects removed from this country during the Second World War are still missing. An investigation carried out by the Ministry of Culture in 1994 in Czech cultural institutions to try to ascertain the extent of the loss discovered that almost 10,000 objects of cultural value disappeared during the war (according to an article by P. Jirasek published in the magazine "Spoils of War", no. 1). To this day, for example, there is no trace of the historical monuments from Charles University, nor of the 18 crates filled with historical works which were shipped off to Dippoldiswalde towards the end of the war; we do not know what became of Adolf Hitler's documents hidden at the end of the war in the Vyssi Brod monastery, the National Gallery is still missing a number of paintings, the State Library lacks many books and a number of private collectors have yet to see their property safely returned.

The issue of the restitution of works of art is frequently discussed; in 1994 the Quedlinburg treasure was returned to Germany from a private collection after a decision reached by the American courts - in this case an international precedent. The author of this text processes conclusive evidence that at least one valuable Italian Renaissance work of art seized from Konopiste by the Nazis during the war is housed in an American collection.

We also have the option of re-examining known caches. It was by returning to locations such as this, for example, that three crates of gold and silver objects belonging to the former Saxon royal line of Wettin were found last year near Moritzburg castle not far from Dresden; the Soviet army also dug up thirty crates of silver in the same location in 1947.

During late November and early December 1994 an international conference was convened in Bremen to discuss the question of documentation, archive research and the restitution of cultural heritage displaced during the war, attended by representatives from institutions in Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Holland, Poland, the Ukraine and the USA. The result of this convention, apart from a valuable information exchange, was the publication of the international magazine "Spoils of War", issued twice a year by the Coordination Office of the Federal States for the Return of Cultural Property. This newsletter acts as a current international forum for a problem which many institutions in a number of countries consider of great importance.

The situation in the Czech Republic is somewhat different. There is a notable lack of available assistance on an institutional level whereby current questions would be solved and information exchanged on an international level, involving the coordination of all parties concerned.

The consequences of our historical development have also left their mark. The majority of specialists who became involved in the repatriation of cultural heritage shortly after the war were removed from their positions during the course of 1947 and, in 1948, these ventures were finally brought to a complete standstill. Another factor complicating the situation was the changes instigated by the regime regarding property originally owned by noble families, the church and private collections of which a considerable part was not returned to its owners before a new totalitarian system took hold.

According to available sources, the current quest to discover the whereabouts of collections seized by the Germans in this country during the war is being undertaken only by a handful of professionals or institutions. These include the Federation of Jewish Communities which is compiling a list of confiscated Jewish property, the cultural attache and press secretary of the Czech embassy in Berlin, Jan Sechter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is chiefly trying to locate the monuments from Charles University, according to various sources, Dr Helena Krejcova from the Institute of Contemporary History and also the author of this report. The cooperation between J. Sechter and L. Cepicka is beginning to produce fascinating results. Jan Sechter recently also submitted a report on displaced objects to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In order to discover more about the activities of the Nazi bodies during the war it will clearly be necessary first to carry out archive research, chiefly in the branch of the Bundesarchiv in Beriin-Zehlendorf, fund NS 30 "Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Ro-senberg" and fund NS 8 "Kanzlei Rosenberg", perhaps also in the Militararchiv in Freiburg; Czech institutions which could provide a wealth of information include the Interior Ministry Archives, the fund of the former Archive Research Institute and finally the fragmentary archives of the Heeresmuseum Prag. This basic research should complement investigations under way in the archives of the National Property Administration for which lists of objects lost during the War (particularly paintings) were compiled after World War II, and in the archives of the Ministry of Finance which has drawn up clearly-arranged tables and diagrams showing economic and cultural losses which occurred during the occupation.

I consider research undertaken in the archives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Education and Culture, the Ministry of Defense and the Military History Archives (Military History Institute fund) to be of fundamental importance if we are to learn more about the activities of the restitution commission after the occupation.

In order to complete this complex mosaic it will be necessary to carry out research in individual institutions affected by the Nazi pillage or the subsequent nationalization after 1945 and 1948; these data may be compared and correlated with entries from the Inventory and Separation Commission of the state civil court made shortly after the founding of the independent Republic at the beginning of the 1920s during the first land reform.

Ladislav Cepicka, Historian, Lhota

In January this year the Coordination Office of the Federal States for the Return of Cultural Property moved to Magdeburg. The office is now located in the Ministry of Culture and Education of Saxony-Anhalt. It is part of the Foundation for Castles, Stately Homes and Gardens of this federal state. All 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany are now members of the Coordination Office. The executive committee of the Coordination Office - consisting of the head of the departments of Culture in the respective Ministries of all states - during its session in Hamburg in November 1997 elected a new board. Chairman now is Eckart Kirn (Saxony-Anhalt), the deputies are Barbara Kisseler (Lower Saxony) and - as was the case during the last years - Bernd Mehlitz (Berlin).

When the Russian law was pending there was for a long time no advance in the Russian-German negotiations. But at least one of the expert groups of the two countries met again after a long time. The expert group of museums and collections held its meeting on December, 2 and 3, 1997 in St. Petersburg. The only topic was the inspection of the medieval glass windows of the Church of St. Mary ("St. Marienkirche") in Frankfurt/Oder. 111 single pieces (40 x 80 cm) were brought to Potsdam in 1943 to secure them. The Soviet trophy brigade took them to the Hermitage. During transport many of the pieces were damaged. It was agreed that experts from the state Brandenburg, where Frankfurt/Oder is located, and the Hermitage will work together on a list of the single pieces and establish a plan concerning the time and costs of the restoration. The next meeting is supposed to be held in June this year.

The Hermitage is planning an exhibition with parts of the Schliemann collection of Trojan antiquities, which were brought to Leningrad in 1945 and remained there until now. The director of the Museum for Pre- and Early History in Berlin was invited to St. Petersburg in order to talk about the German-Russian cooperation on behalf of the exhibition ("Schliemann, St. Petersburg, Troja"). In return in January this year the responsible curator of the exhibition in the Hermitage came to Berlin.

The German-Polish working group met in November 1997 in Warsaw for the second time. Both sides handed over a list of restitutions of cultural property between the two countries since 1945. They also provided lists of cultural treasures now to be found in institutions of the other country. The experts agreed that it is their task only to establish the facts and not to talk about the political or legal problems. The next meeting will take place'in Magdeburg on May, 27 and 28.

On the occasion of the visit of President Herzog to Ukraine three drawings from the Bremen Kunsthalle were given back on February 5, 1998. The private collector Ser-gej Platanow had the paintings in his possession and prompted the return. Drawings from the Kunsthalle Bremen also surfaced in the USA. In September last year 12 drawings were confiscated in New York by U.S. authorities. For more details on this case see the special report by Thomas R. Kline in this issue of "Spoils of War".

The results of the enquiry about Italian cultural property now possibly located in the Federal Republic of Germany were handed over to the Italian side by the German Foreign Ministry. Some objects could indeed be found in German institutions after the distribution of the Italian catalogue "Treasures Untraced - An Inventory of the Italian Art Treasures Lost during the Second World War".

On April, 9 an exhibition in Dresden opened its doors: "Back in Dresden: An Exhibition of Formerly Missing Works of the State Galleries Dresden. Collection of Sculptures, Armoury, Department of Prints and Drawings, Picture Gallery Old and New Masters". The variety of objects which have been lost and found again is shown in this exhibition. Among the objects there are four paintings by Cranach. The exhibition will be open for two months.

A painting by Rogier van der Weyden - "Philip der Gute von Burgund" (Philip the Good of Burgundy) - was supposed to be auctioned by Christie's in Paris. It is identical with a painting missing from the museum in Castle Friedenstein/Gotha. The German authorities and the museum were informed about the case. It is also the town of Gotha which is involved in a law suit concerning the painting by Joachim A. Wtewael ("Holy Family with Holy John, Holy Elizabeth and Angels"). The next hearing in this case will take place in London in June 1998. The judgment is expected for the summer this year.

Doris Lemmermeier, former Project Leader of the Coordination Office
of the Federal States for the Return of Cultural Property, Potsdam