The Baldin Collection is a group of 364

masterpiece A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

s removed from Germany to the Soviet Union by Soviet Army officer Victor Baldin at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The ensemble consists of 362 drawings and two paintings by Dürer,

van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artwork ...

, Manet,

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of clas ...

Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...

and other famous artists. Historically part of the collection at the

Kunsthalle Bremen The Kunsthalle Bremen is an art museum in Bremen, Germany. It is located close to the Bremen Old Town on the "Culture Mile" (). The Kunsthalle was built in 1849, enlarged in 1902 by architect Eduard Gildemeister, and expanded several more times, ...

, the Baldin group came from a much larger cache of artworks stored by the Germans in a

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

castle to protect it from air raids. In 1945 the castle was occupied by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and the storage vaults were looted, mainly by Russian soldiers but also by the local German population. The works Baldin took were then hidden at a Soviet Research Institute for many years. In 1991 the collection was moved to the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

where its existence was revealed to the world in 1992. It remains there today. Since then the Baldin Collection has been regarded as

looted art Looted art has been a consequence of looting during war, natural disaster and riot for centuries. Looting of art, archaeology and other cultural property may be an opportunistic criminal act or may be a more organized case of Crime, unlawful or u ...

and is the subject of fierce debate among experts, between

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, and among politicians inside Russia itself. While Victor Baldin did steal the works, he is also credited with having saved them from destruction. For decades he appealed to senior officials, including Soviet leaders

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, his death in 1982 as w ...

and

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

, to get them returned to Germany. In 1989 Baldin even traveled to

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, to reveal the existence of the secret collection to the Kunsthalle. In the 1990s the government of

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

finally agreed to return the works, but subsequent Russian governments have blocked such plans. Today the Collection has been called "of singular importance to the entire issue of trophy art" by the Russians and a "

cause célèbre A ( , ; pl. ''causes célèbres'', pronounced like the singular) is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning, and heated public debate. The term is sometimes used positively for celebrated legal cases for th ...

of German-Russian Restitution Politics" by those who support its return.

History

Kunsthalle Bremen Collection

At the outbreak of

in 1939, the Bremen Art Museum (German: ''

'') was closed and its priceless paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture were stored in the basement.

, an important manufacturing center, became an early target for Allied strategic bombing. On the night of 5 September 1942, a fire bomb destroyed the central staircase and six gallery rooms of the museum. It also burned the original version of

Emanuel Leutze Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (May 24, 1816July 18, 1868) was a German-born American history painter, best known for his 1851 painting '' Washington Crossing the Delaware''. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. Biography Leutze w ...

's famous painting ''

Washington Crossing the Delaware Washington Crossing the Delaware may refer to: * George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, which occurred on the night of December 25–26, 1776, during the American Revolutionary ...

'', which because of its size could not be moved. After this damage, the Kunsthalle collections were moved to more secure storage in various bank vaults underneath Bremen. In 1943, as bombing intensified, Bremen's mayor decreed that the museum's collections be moved to safety outside the city. The collection was divided up between four castles in Germany. A set of 50 paintings, 1715 drawings and 3000 prints were moved to Schloss Karnzow, the hunting lodge of Count von Königsmarck, near the small town of

Kyritz Kyritz () is a town in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 28 km west of Neuruppin and 28 km southeast of Pritzwalk. The town has 9,260 inhabitants (2019). Overview The town is situated near the , ...

north of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in the

Province of Brandenburg The Province of Brandenburg () was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1947. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg (excluding Altmark) and ...

.Kunsthalle Bremen: ''Geschichte 1914–1945'
online
. Retrieved 3 June 2012.

Karnzow Castle and Victor Baldin, 1945

After Germany's defeat,

and specifically the area around Karnzow Castle was occupied by the

. On 29 May 1945 soldiers and officers of the 38th Field Engineers' Brigade billeted at the Castle began looting it. Victor Baldin, an Army captain and combat engineer, found opened boxes in the cellar, saw documents trampled on the floor, and observed soldiers lighting their way by using burning papers. Baldin, an art restorer before the war, recognized these as drawings by the great masters. Baldin intervened and sealed the cellar. Scrutinizing the treasures lying about, he found works by

Corot CoRoT (French: ; English: Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits) was a space telescope mission which operated from 2006 to 2013. The mission's two objectives were to search for extrasolar planets with short orbital periods, particularly t ...

, Delacroix,

Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French people, French Impressionism, Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, Print ...

, Dürer, Van Dyke,

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artwork ...

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, an ...

, Manet,

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...

Toulouse-Lautrec ''Comte'' Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901), known as Toulouse-Lautrec (), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful an ...

, and

.Kira Dolinina and Maia Stravinskaya
"Ministry of Culture Won't Give Back What Doesn't Belong to It"
''

Kommersant (, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia certified July 2013 circulation of the daily ...

''. 22 February 2005. "Es ist sein letzter Wille"
''

Die Welt (, ) is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group and it is considered a newspaper of record in Germany. Its leading competitors are the ...

''. 22 February 2005 . Retrieved 3 June 2012.Judith Ingram
"Disputed German Art Opens in Moscow"
'' The St. Petersburg Times'' Issue 856 (24) 1 April 2003 Andrei Zolotov Jr.
"Shvydkoi Could Face Charges Over German Art Exchange"
'' The St. Petersburg Times'' Issue 855 (23) 28 March 2003 Baldin became determined to save what he could. He later said "I started in on the beautiful things, then I saw it was all beautiful." He took drawings away from soldiers by force, by deception and in exchange for personal items. In one case, it took him three days to obtain a drawing of Christ's head by

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...

from another officer. Baldin managed to coax the officer into exchanging it for his chrome boots. Of the thousands of works stored in the cellar, Baldin managed to save just 362 drawings and two paintings. Among them was the only known pen and ink study by

of his famous 1889 painting, ''

The Starry Night ''The Starry Night'', often called simply ''Starry Night'', is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Sain ...

''. As the Soviet Army withdrew, the cellars were left open and what little remained of the collection was lost to local looters and the weather. Baldin's actions and motives are still debated today. He did indeed cut the drawings from their mounts, put them into a suitcase, carried them to the Soviet Union, and hid them in his apartment. However, while at the castle, Baldin also wrote down descriptions of every work he saw, copied the German signatures and labels, and later carefully documented their

provenance Provenance () is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art, but is now used in similar senses in a wide range of fields, including archaeology, p ...

. He also begged for an official military transport so the collection could be handled more securely, but none were available, and his request was denied. As a result, it is generally agreed that Baldin's efforts rescued priceless

s from outright destruction. In addition, because of his specialized art knowledge, what would become known as the "Baldin Collection" became the most important part of the Kunsthalle collection remaining from Schloss Karnzow. In contrast to Baldin's efforts, works looted by Baldin's comrades from Karnzow have been found as far afield as

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

and in varying states of decay. In the late 1990s, eight disputed drawings, including the world-famous ''Frauenbad'' ("Women's Bathhouse") by Albrecht Dürer, were seized by United States Customs in an incident of

black market A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...

trading.Jo Ann Lewis, "Duerer, Drawing a Hot Bath" in: ''The Washington Post'', 26 October 1997, at G9 Today over 1,500 items from the Kunsthalle collection that were stored at Karnzow remain missing.

Postwar period, 1946–1990

After their return home, some of the officers who had participated in the looting at Karnzow donated their pieces to museums around the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. In 1948 Baldin deposited his at the

Shchusev Museum of Architecture The ShchusevThe official site of the museum prefers the spelling ''Schusev''. Museum of Architecture is a national museum of Russian Architecture located in Moscow the capital of Russia and also a research centre to study and promote the archite ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, where the masterpieces became a Soviet state secret. Baldin worked as an art restorer at the museum and eventually became its general director in 1963, a post he held for 25 years. Baldin then tried for decades to give the stolen art back to Germany. He took the courageous steps of writing to Soviet leader

in 1973, to the chief ideologist of the Communist Party

Yegor Ligachev Yegor Kuzmich Ligachyov (also transliterated as Ligachev; ; 29 November 1920 – 7 May 2021) was a Soviet and Russian politician who was a high-ranking official in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), and who continued an active po ...

in 1987, and many other Soviet political and cultural officials including

Mikhail Suslov Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov (; 25 January 1982) was a Soviet people, Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union#Secretariat, Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Sovi ...

, and

Raisa Gorbachev Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva (, , Титаренко; 5 January 1932 – 20 September 1999) was a Soviet and Russian activist and philanthropist who was the wife of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. She raised funds for the preservation of Russi ...

– all to no avail. In 1989, during the period of increased transparency in the Soviet Union known as

perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...

, Baldin took another unprecedented step. He traveled to Bremen,

, and met with the director of the Kunsthalle, Dr Siegfried Salzmann. The director was shocked to learn that important parts of the long lost collection had survived. With hands shaking, he read the list of the missing masterpieces that Baldin had prepared years before. Baldin had put pencil marks next to those works he had personally rescued. He has since been called the "hero of the story."

Post-Soviet period, 1991–2000

In 1991, Baldin wrote to Russian President

and finally received his first reply, in which the president agreed it would be politically correct to return the works to Germany. However, that same year nationalist elements in the Russian government hurriedly transferred the collection to the State

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

in a cover-up attempt. As of 2012 it is still unclear if one of the most famous works in the collection, ''Cypresses in Starry Night'' (1889) by Van Gogh, is at the Hermitage or remains in Moscow. In legal proceedings and political debates during the following years it appeared that collection might return to its rightful owner. In 2000, a group of 101 pieces from another part of Baldin's brigade, including Albrecht Duerers' 1494 watercolor ''View of a Rock Castle by a River'', were returned to the Kunsthalle by Russia. This was followed by the simultaneous return of two artifacts of the

Amber Room The Amber Room (, ) was a chamber decorated in amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors, located in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg. Constructed in the 18th century in Prussia, the room was dismantled and ...

, bought and financed by a Bremen businessman to speed up the process.Peter Finn: "Bremen Basks in Return of Art Looted by Soviet Army" in: ''The Washington Post''. 24 November 2000, A Section Anatoly Vilkov, from the Russian ministry of culture, stated that "Russia has no right to keep the Baldin collection. We did not receive this right through a gift, since by law the collection did not belong to the donor Baldin."Rainer B. Schossig: ''Viktor Baldin – Der Mann mit dem Koffer. Die Odyssee der 1945 nach Moskau verbrachten Blätter der Kunsthalle Bremen.'' (Bremen: Der Kunstverein Hachmannedition)

Latest disputes, 2003–present

The potential return of the collection to Germany began to face increasing opposition from Russian nationalist leaders, including

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

legislator and former Minister of Culture of the USSR,

Nikolai Gubenko Nikolai Nikolaevich Gubenko (, ; 17 August 1941 – 16 August 2020) was a Soviet and Russian actor, film director, film and theatre director, screenwriter, founder of the Community of Taganka Actors theatre. His movie ''Wounded Game'' was entered ...

. Gubenko had been one of those involved in the 1991 transfer of the art to the Hermitage to hide it. The State

Duma A duma () is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were formed across Russia ...

, which included Gubenko as a member, passed a non-binding resolution on 12 March 2003 asking President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

to prevent the Ministry of Culture from returning the Baldin Collection. Russian Minister of Culture,

Mikhail Shvydkoy Mikhail Yefimovich Shvydkoy (; born September 5, 1948) is a Soviet and Russian theater critic, drama, social and political activist. Laureate of the State Prize of Russia. The artistic director of the Moscow theater musical, supervisor of the Facu ...

, opposed these moves to keep the collection in Russia; he regarded it as illegal loot based on a 1998 law that protected only those artworks from World War II taken by official

Soviet trophy brigades Gosfond (, lit. State Fund) was a Soviet Trophy Brigade otherwise known as the State Agency for Literature formed in late 1944 by Georgy Malenkov on Stalin's orders. It was one of a Extraordinary State Commission#Soviet Trophy Brigades, number of wa ...

and not private citizens. In 2003 he confirmed an order by the Russian General Prosecutor confirming a resolution of the

Hanse The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

Supreme court, which had decided the entire 364 remaining items were the official property of the Bremen Kunsthalle. Shvydkoy and the German Minister of Culture, Christina Weiss, even signed an agreement that 20 pieces of the Baldin ensemble could remain in Russia."Die Liste beginnt mit Dürer"
''

''. 22 March 2003 . Retrieved 3 June 2012. Shvydkoy later received an official reprimand and was threatened by deputy prosecutor Vladimir Kolsenikov with criminal charges if he attempted to return the rest of the collection to Germany. In 2005 Aleksandr Sergeyevich Sokolov, Russia's new Minister of Culture, then contradicted previous promises and stated that he opposed the return of the Baldin collection to Germany. As of 2010, it appeared that the collection would not be returning to Germany any time soon.

Legacy

According to a 2005 interview with Baldin's widow Julia Siwakowa, it was always his wish that the looted art be returned to the Kunsthalle. Baldin's last will stated: "The collection belongs to humankind, not only Germany, and as the collection was located at the Kunsthalle Bremen, it must be returned to this place." The history of Victor Baldin, the stolen paintings and their odyssey is featured in the 2007 book ''Victor Baldin – The Man with the Suitcase/Victor Baldin – Der Mann mit dem Koffer''.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.kunsthalle-bremen.de, Kunsthalle Bremen official website Art and cultural repatriation after World War II Looting in Germany Germany–Soviet Union relations