Nazi SS, holocaust plunder

International conventions that criminalize wartime abuse of cultural property and bilateral treaties that target trafficking in antiquities reflect evolving consideration for looted art in foreign policy. Since the poignant plunder of Jewish collections by Nazi authorities, restitution of artworks has garnered political clout, and looting of developing nations during the Cold War era compounded the significance of cultural property in international affairs. In parallel, the increasing financial volume of the art market over the past half-century has attracted the attention of transnational organized crime and has implications for funding of terrorist groups. This paper examines how security-intelligence services of World War II and the Cold War controlled the looting and recovery of cultural property. Related activities in the post-Cold War period suggest that applications for foreign intelligence on looted art have expanded from diplomacy to security policy.

Book Review of Ron Vossler.  Hitler's Basement:  My Search for Truth, Light, and the Forgotten Executioners of Ukraine's Kingdom Of Death.  Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois:  Green Ivy Publishing, 2016.  In:  Yearbook of German American Studies, Vol. 51 (2016) (Society for German American Studies) (Lawrence, KS:  University of Kansas, 2017).  Pp. 247-252.

By Eric J. Schmaltz

http://sgas.org/publications/

In Zürich sind Kontroversen um das Schauspielhaus (Abriss oder Umbau des Theatersaals) und um das Kunstmuseum (Sammlung Bührle im Chipperfield-Annex) entbrannt. Der Beitrag blendet in den Zweiten Weltkrieg zurück. Er zeigt, wie intensiv der Waffenfabrikant Bührle am Zürcher Heimplatz Kulturpolitik betrieb und welche Auswirkungen das bis heute hat.
Für die Version mit Links und Illustrationen: URL-Adresse anwählen:
https://geschichtedergegenwart.ch/heimsuchungen-am-heimplatz-wie-der-waffenfabrikant-emil-g-buehrle-in-zuerich-kulturpolitik-betrieb/
In Zurich, controversies have flared up over the Schauspielhaus (demolition or reconstruction of the theater hall) and the Kunstmuseum (Bührle Collection in the Chipperfield Annex). The article looks back to the Second World War. It shows how intensively the arms producer Bührle pursued cultural policy on Zurich's Heimplatz and what effects this still has today.
For the version with links and illustrations: Please select URL address.

A late consensus regarding the search for works of art stolen from Jews during WWII and their return to their legitimate owners appeared, with varying degrees of conviction, in the 1990s. States‘ anxieties regarding past complicities encouraged national legislation in returning Holocaust assets.

Reflection on wartime treatment of artworks, historic buildings, and religious monuments since World War I reveals the compounding value of cultural property in foreign affairs. The poignant plunder of artworks during World War II has led to a history of restitution that suggests a model for the resolution of wartime art crime. The exploitation of cultural artifacts in developing nations during the Cold War era tests the model for repatriation of antiquities, and the destruction of historic and religious monuments in the post-Cold War period offers an opportunity to apply the model in predictive analysis for strategies in foreign policy. Specific examples illustrate the maturing market value of Nazi plunder. Successful restitution cases and an expanding art market inspire repatriation of looted antiquities. The financial and political significance of artworks decades after the wartime art crime indicate that the clout of displaced cultural property in foreign affairs increases with time.