Catalog of Herman Goering’s Looted Art Is Published
Image by Getty Images
A comprehensive catalog listing the more than 1,000 major stolen artworks in Nazi leader Hermann Goering’s collection has been published for the first time.
The handwritten catalog, which had been stored in France’s diplomatic archives and accessible only to scholars, was published Wednesday by the French publisher Flammarion, the UK Telegraph reported.
With notes detailing from whom each work was stolen, the catalog is expected to help restore the looted art to its rightful owners and heirs. The art was confiscated primarily from Jews throughout Nazi-occupied Europe.
Goering was Hitler’s second in command, and much of his plundered art collection, which included works by Botticelli, Van Gogh, Renoir and Monet, was displayed at Carinhall, Goering’s country retreat near Berlin.
The catalog, which the Telegraph compared to a “simple bookkeepers log,” was kept on Goering’s office desk and notes in which room each work was hung.
Goering was convicted in the Nuremburg trials for crimes against humanity. He committed suicide the day before he was to be hanged in 1946. His art collection was confiscated by the Allies.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
