The Lost Odyssey; Chapter 2

Nearly sixty-six years have passed since the Nazi occupation. And yet, there are still over 100,000 pieces of art missing from what they plundered. Only 16 of the top 40 listed have been recovered. Up to 20 percent of European art was looted by the Nazi's from 1938-1944. The international community is still trying to recover any looted pieces, to offset the devastating losses suffered by so many. This substantial loss can be compared to the horrific fire that swept through the Royal Library of Alexandria 42 BCE, burning the entire structure and all it's contents to the ground.It is a known fact that after Germany lost the war, the United States of America and a few other international communities united together, to find Hitler's hidden loot. Which was quite an endeavor at the time. But with the help of the military, the Roberts Commission, Foreign state and intelligence departments along with several fine art organizations, many lost pieces were found and returned. Currently the National Archives at College Park has a substantial quantity of records pertaining to Nazi looted art. These records range from thousands of intelligence reports to over 12,000 still photographs accumulated by the Roberts Commission.

On the seventh day of November, 2007 the United States National Archives announced the recent discovery of two Hitler albums. Within these journals were catalog entries of confiscated art pieces stolen by the Third Reich. Originally Hitler ordered the Third Reich, under Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), that any political or military propaganda be documented and confiscated. As Hitler's Nazi conquest surpassed German borders, in 1940 Hitler ordered that all "ownerless Jewry and Freemasonry" art pieces, be sent back to Germany. In 1942, Hitler gave the order that what couldn't be carted off quickly, and sent back to Germany be burnt instead. Hitler realized that looting large palaces, castles, estates, museums and libraries were too intrusive on what little resources and manpower they had. So from 1942 to 1945, much of what was stolen by Hitler's soldiers, was destroyed so that the Allies couldn't themselves sell the art for money to fund the war.

When in 1940 having celebrated victory over France, Adolf Hitler order that France's massive art collection cataloged, and much of it sent back to his personal curator's. According the National Archives, "Soon after the German occupation of France in 1940, the German military, and subsequently the ERR, focused their art confiscations on the world renowned Jewish- owned art collections from families such as the Rothschilds, and the Veil-Picards, Alphonse Kann, and Jewish dealers such as the Seligmanns and Georges Wildenstein. According to the German ERR documents from 1944, the art seizures in France totaled 21,903 objects from 203 collections. There were 5,009 items confiscated from the Rothschild family collections, 2,687 items from the David-Weill collection, and 1,202 from Alphonse Kann’s collection." The Hitler albums are numbered 1 and 2. They were donated to the United States National Archives sometime during 2007, by Mr. Robert Edsel the renowned author. Mr. Edsel acquired them through family members of an American serviceman. Mr. Edsel is currently planning on donating a third album to the archives, known as Album 6.

 A Ravished Collector

• Edouard Alphonse James de Rothschild,

In 1940, the Baron and his wife escaped to Lisbon, Portugal right after the Nazi occupation of France. From there they were able to continue on their way to New York City, New York. It is there that they waited until the end of World War II to return to their homeland of Austria. But before his escape to the United States, James and his wife did their best to hide their massive art collection worth millions from the Nazi's. He hid most of his collection somewhere on the Haras de Meautry farm and at his Château de Reux estate. But in 1940, the Nazi's caught up with the Rothschild's treasure, raiding and looting everything in sight.

The Haras de Meautry farm of theirs, was also a race horse breeding farm. And many of the horses, around 600 of them were sent to Hungry or Germany for breeding. James' prize winning horse, Brantôme was one such horse captured and sent to Germany. Brantôme was returned to James Rothschild just after the war in 1945.