Hunting Stolen Nazi Art

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2022

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the Nazi war machine rampaged across Europe it did not just take territory and resources from its conquests but also many thousands of pieces of art and other antiquities. Stolen from both galleries and individual victims of Nazi crimes allied troops discovered hidden caches of priceless artworks throughout Europe. As the war proceeded it had been recognised that these cultural treasures needed protection from the fighting and where necessary rescued and returned to their rightful owners. This job fell to the men and women of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFAA) often known as "Monuments Men". Around 400 strong this team of dedicated art historians and museum staff risked their lives on the frontlines in order to save some of the world's most precious cultural heritage.

To help tell the story of these brave men and women Dan is joined by Robert Edsel founder of the Monuments Men Foundation. Robert guides us through the formation of the MFAA, its role during and after the war and the ongoing going work by his foundation to continue their legacy and reunite works of art that remain missing with their rightful owners.

In the second half of the podcast, Dan speaks to Eric 'Randy' Schoenberg an American lawyer and genealogist, based in Los Angeles, California, specializing in legal cases related to the recovery of looted or stolen artworks, particularly those by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. Randy successfully sued the Austrian government on behalf of his client Maria Altmann and reclaimed five Gustav Klimt paintings that had been taken during the war. He talks about how he came to specialize in this aspect of the law, the case itself and the impact the return of the paintings had on both Maria's family and him.

This episode was first broadcast on 16 September 2021.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, well, welcome to Dance in those history. I've got two people on the podcast, they both
0:04.3	of whom have inspired major Hollywood films. That was unintentional, but it's happened,
0:10.7	both the guests have done that. The first guest you can hear from is Robert Edsel. He's
0:15.2	a author. He wrote the fantastic, successful Monuments Men, the Allied heroes, Nazi thieves
0:21.5	and greatest treasure hunt in history, that then got made into a movie, I'm sure many
0:25.4	of you see, got made into a movie called The Monuments Men, directed by and starring
0:29.6	George Clooney, heard of him. It's the story of how the vast amounts of looted art taken
0:36.6	by the Nazis from Jewish people, from art galleries, from victims right across occupied
0:43.2	Europe. All of that art had to be reconnected with its original owners, and that work is
0:48.8	continuing. And Robert Edsel has a foundation. He is the founder, he's the chairman of the
0:54.0	Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art. That work goes on. That brings me
0:59.2	to our second guest, you'll hear in the second half of this podcast. Eric Randall Schumberg,
1:04.7	Randy to his friends, like me, is a lawyer, a genealogist. He's based in LA. And he, as
1:12.4	you'll hear, as a kind of favor to a family friend, said he would try tilting at the Austrian
1:18.3	government. You'd try and launch a legal challenge to recover some works of art by Gustav
1:23.5	Klimt. He only went and did it. He only went and nailed it. He got this art back, restored
1:28.7	it to its original owners and made lots of money in the process because he waived his
1:33.4	fee, took a share of the art if they managed to get it. So that's pretty sweet. His work
1:39.2	also inspired a movie, but in his case, Ryan Reynolds played him, actually played him
1:44.6	in the movie. Ryan Reynolds can be that. That was in the movie Woman in Gold, starring,
1:50.2	good old Helen Mirren. So really, this is a star-studded episode, the podcast. It's crazy.
1:56.3	And after you listen to it, while you listen to it, please go and check out the Klimt paintings
	...

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