The Munich Central Collecting Point was a depot used by the

Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program The Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section Unit (MFAA) was a program established by the Allies of World War II, Allies in 1943 to help protect cultural property in war areas during and after World War II. The group of about 400 service membe ...

after the end of the

Second World War 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 ...

to process, photograph and redistribute artwork and cultural artifacts that had been confiscated by the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

and hidden throughout Germany and Austria. Other Central Collecting Points were located at

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

and Offenbach, with the overall aim of giving restitution for the artifacts to their countries of origin. Lieutenant Craig Hugh Smyth was responsible for establishing the Munich Central Collecting Point in July 1945, converting former Nazi Party offices into a depot complete with photography studios and conservation labs. The depot's activities were directed by Herbert S. Leonard. The Munich Central Collecting Point mainly processed artwork from European museums and private collections, including Hitler's collection found at

Altaussee Altaussee (; Central Bavarian: ''Oid Aussee'') is a municipality and spa town in the district of Liezen in Styria, Austria. The small village is nestled on the shores of the Lake Altaussee, beneath the Loser Plateau. Occupying an area of 92&n ...

. This included paintings, sculptures, metalwork and other objects. These restitution activities at Munich ceased in 1951. In 2016 investigative journalists at Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that

Commission for Looted Art in Europe The Commission for Looted Art in Europe is a non-profit organization, that researches looted art, and helps formulate restitution policy, for galleries, libraries, archives, and museums. It was organized in 1999. Anne Webber, and David Lewis a ...

(CLAE), had discovered that "The Monuments Men tracked down Nazi looted art. Only for German museum directors to return it to the families of the Nazi leaders rather than to the Jewish families who were its rightful owners." Archives of materials relating to the Munich Central Collecting Point are located in two repositories in the USA. Original inventory records and photographs of works of art are held by the

National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...

. There is a further archive of photographs, and

microfilm A microform is a scaled-down reproduction of a document, typically either photographic film or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original d ...

copies of the inventory cards, in the Photographic Archives at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

References

Bibliography

* Lauterbach, Iris (2018). ''The Central Collecting Point in Munich: A New Beginning for the Restitution and Protection of Art''. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute. . * Schuhmacher, Jacques (2024).
Nazi-Era Provenance of Museum Collections: A research guide
'. London:

UCL Press University College London ( branded as UCL) is a public research university in London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London, and is the second-largest university in the United Kingdom by total enrolment ...

, pp. 47-57. .

External links

List of records at the National Archives
{{Authority control Art and cultural repatriation after World War II Munich in World War II Nazi-looted art

See also

References

Bibliography

External links