[MSN] German cultural institutions have issued a catalogue detailing thousands of objects of art that disappeared from Berlin at the end of the second world war, in the hope of pricking the conscience of governments to return them.

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Germany issues catalogue of missing art works in push for return of war
booty


. Donatello and Botticelli in list of 180,000 treasures:
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2139718,00.html
. Inventory aimed mostly at Russia and Poland 

Kate Connolly in Berlin
Thursday August 2, 2007
The Guardian 


German cultural institutions have issued a catalogue detailing thousands of
objects of art that disappeared from Berlin at the end of the second world
war, in the hope of pricking the conscience of governments to return them.
The detailed inventory, which one critic said read like a "book of mourning"
for lost German artefacts, contains a staggering array of treasures, most of
which are believed to have been seized by foreign soldiers in 1945. They
include sculptures by Nicola Pisano, a delicate relief by Donatello, late
Gothic Madonnas and an exquisite array of Baroque works rendered in stone
and wood. Other star pieces include paintings by Botticelli and Van Dyck.
A total of 180,000 items disappeared from German collections and have never
been recovered. According to cultural experts, they are being held in secret
depots in Russia and Poland.
The catalogue concentrates on sculptures and has been compiled by the
Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK), a state-financed body aimed at
conserving the cultural heritage of the former state of Prussia. It is one
of a series of six publications that are to be distributed throughout the
art world in the hope of triggering memories and prompting a return of some
of the works.

The volume is documented proof of the extent to which the so-called "trophy
art" issue has still to be resolved 62 years after the war, despite
high-level negotiations.

Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, head of the SPK, said: "The catalogue should form the
basis of political negotiations as well as reaching the attention of the
Russian public."

The emotional store put on returns of looted art was illustrated this week
with the unveiling to the public of an exquisite ivory figure from 1700,
which was last seen on a train-load of art works heading for safekeeping in
Kassel in March 1945. The 22cm (8.6in) high Baroque sculpture by Balthasar
Permoser - which depicts Omphale and her slave and lover, Hercules, and
illustrates how love makes us defenceless - turned up at Sotheby's in New
York, via a collector in California, two years ago. Able to prove its
provenance, Berlin's Museum of Decorative Arts is now celebrating its
return.

The missing art has been a long-running issue of contention between Russia
and Germany, and Poland and Germany for years. While government negotiations
with both countries stagnated long ago, curators and art experts have
maintained a close dialogue.

The results are mixed. German experts welcomed the recent opening in Moscow
of an exhibition of Merovingian-era gold and silver art works looted from
war-torn Berlin by Red Army soldiers.

But their calls for the eventual return of the treasures, which were last
seen by the Berlin public in 1939, went down badly in Russia, where the
artefacts are euphemistically referred to as "art stored in conditions of
war".

Mr Lehmann has appealed to Russia to open the depots where he says works are
being stored. But the Russian government, which declared in a 1999 law that
it owned the looted works, has responded by proposing to draw up completely
new inventories, which would make it impossible to prove the provenance of
the treasures and probably block their return forever.

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/