Provenance Alert: Two Rediscovered Nazi-Loot Photo Albums Go to National Archives

Photo of François Boucher, "Reclining Girls and Cupid," Confiscated Collection: R 360 (Rothschild Collection, France)

The National Archives yesterday announced the discovery of two original leather-bound albums of photographs documenting art looted by the Nazis during World War II. Both will be donated to the Archives by Robert Edsel, author of "Rescuing Da Vinci" and president of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art. (The foundation provides no information on its website about its officials or members, or about whether they have any connection to the original Monuments Men---the celebrated World War II era's art rescuers, several of whom were interviewed in the absorbing Rape of Europa movie about the Nazis' art confiscations and the subsequent recoveries and restitutions.)

Images (including the example above) from one of the two recently discovered albums can be seen here.

CNN gives further details:

The albums...came from the descendants of an American soldier stationed in Germany who found them at Hitler's home in Berghof, tossed them into his rucksack and brought them home with him. They sat in an attic for years until the family of the now-deceased soldier contacted the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, a group that helps to recover and find the home of previously stolen artwork.

Unexplained in any account I have seen thus far are why the volumes are being donated by Edsel, rather than by the family, and why he is relinquishing only one of them immediately. He intends to hand over the second album to the Archives at an unspecified "future time," but will "make this volume or images of it available to researchers upon request," according to the Archives.

Yesterday's announcement noted:

The National Archives has custody of the 39 original ERR photograph albums that were discovered at Neuschwanstein, where the Germans, in April 1945, had placed them for safekeeping. In late 1945, this set of 39 albums was used as evidence at the Nuremberg trials to document the massive Nazi art looting operations.

Some 100 such volumes are said to have been created by the ERR, the unit responsible for confiscating Jewish art collections. It had been thought that the missing albums were destroyed towards the end of World War II.

According to U.S. Archivist Allen Weinstein, "Documents such as these may play a role in...helping victims recover their treasures."

Is it time for another round of provenance research?