Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Lost Masterpieces of World War II

Starting point is 00:00:00 Throughout history, conquering armies have carried away the treasures of defeated nations. But during the Second World War, this practice reached an unprecedented scale. The German military stole priceless masterpieces from museums and private collections. Decades later, some of these treasures still remain missing, and their fates draw speculation and investigation. Learn more about Nazi art theft and the mysterious disappearance of some of the world's greatest artistic treasures. On this episode, of Everything Everywhere, daily. As a podcaster, I'm often asked what podcasts I listen to. One of the shows I subscribe to and

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Starting point is 00:01:55 You might not think it, but you are far more important than you realize. Thank you. At the nexus of all things, there is a diner. Look for Midnight Burger on your favorite podcasting app, or just go to weopenat6.com. One of the most overlooked aspects of the Nazi party was their obsession, which really stemmed from Hitler's obsession, with art. In September 1933, just months after taking power, the Reich Chamber of Culture was created. The Chamber controlled the production of music, art, radio, film, theater, and writing within Germany. The Nazis play so much emphasis on art because they believed

Starting point is 00:02:36 it could shape a nation's development. As a result, they considered certain types of modern art dangerous because they didn't align with the true German image that they wanted to create. They also claimed that modern art was influenced by both Jews and communists and was designed to weaken German society through cultural Bolshevism. Because of this, modern art became known as degenerate art in Nazi circles. This term was chosen as it suggested the artist's mental, physical, and moral capacity was poor and immoral in some way. The Nazis did not reject, all foreign art. They particularly condemned modernist movements such as cubism, surrealism, and expressionism, while celebrating classical antiquity and traditional European paintings.

Starting point is 00:03:23 Hitler himself admired numerous foreign old masters, and the Nazis collected many of their works. While publicly rejecting modern art, the Nazis systematically looted modern art from museums and private collections across Europe during the war. They sold many of these pieces on international markets in order to obtain foreign currency, or they often just destroyed them. The Nazi proclivity to loot art during their occupations became one of the biggest cultural scandals of the entire war, and a prime example of this was the Amber Room. The Amber Room was often called the Eighth Wonder of the World. It was an extraordinary chamber decorated with elaborate panels made from several tons of amber, backed by Gold Leaf and

Starting point is 00:04:10 complemented by mirrors and precious decorative elements. Located in the Catherine Palace outside of St. Petersburg, the room was a gift to St. Peter the Great in 1716 to celebrate peace between Russia and Prussia. Modern estimates place the value of the room at anywhere from $142 to over $500 million. The Soviets were aware that the Nazis desired the Amber Room. Curators responsible for removing art and treasures from Leningrad tried to disassemble it for transportation. However, because the objects were so old, the amber had dried out and become brittle, making the room's pieces impossible to move without crumbling.

Starting point is 00:04:51 To protect the room, the Soviets tried to hide it behind plain wallpaper, but because of the room's fame, that project failed. When German soldiers arrived, they disassembled the amber room in just 36 hours. What was nicknamed an eighth wonder of the world was then just reduced to 27 crates. By October 1941, the room was moved to East Prussia to the city of Kunigsberg, to be stored and displayed in the city's castle. The castle was a museum where Alfred Rode, the museum's director, studied the room's history. The Ember Room remained on display at Kunigsburg Castle for approximately two years. As the threat of Allied air raids increased, the Germans dismantled its pants.

Starting point is 00:05:35 and place them in storage. The precise timing of the process is debated, although the panels were reportedly being packed into crates in January of 1945. There are multiple theories to explain what happened to the Amber Room. One leading theory holds that the Amber Room was destroyed during the British bombings in August of 1944, or the fighting and fires that accompanied the Soviet capture of the city in April of 1945. Although investigators have found evidence of fire damage, no conclusive proof has established the fate of the original amber panels. The Soviet team charged with

Starting point is 00:06:10 locating the amber room after the war agreed with this theory, believing that it was destroyed between the 9th and 11th of April of 1945. However, plenty of other theories suggest that the room is still somewhere out there. Reports surfaced that parts of the amber room survived the war. Witness testimony claims to have seen the room being loaded onto the ship the Wilhelm Gustav. In 1997, investigators in Germany recovered one of the four Florentine stone mosaic panels that had decorated the amber room. Investigators traced the mosaic to the family of a former German soldier involved in transporting

Starting point is 00:06:48 the room's contents during the war. In 1979, the Soviets decided to create a replica of the amber room. The process took 25 years, cost $11 million, and required 40 amber craftsmen. Using original drawings and old black and white photographs, the reconstruction was difficult because amber carving was almost a lost art form, and few skilled workers were available. The replica is considered an artistic masterpiece in and of itself. However, for some, the replica can never truly capture the historical weight of the original 300-year-old work.

Starting point is 00:07:24 The replica seems almost too perfect and lax aspects the original had, like natural aging and imperfections that developed over time. Another important artwork that went missing during the war was portrait of a young man by the Italian artist Raphael. Raphael is one of the most admired artists of the Renaissance. Most of his art features religious themes that were popular at the time. Raphael completed portrait of a young man sometime between 1513 and 1514. The painting is thought to be a self-portrait because the man's facial structure matches his only

Starting point is 00:08:00 confirmed self-portrait. A Polish prince named Adam Yerza Charterreschi purchased portrait of a young man in 1798. He brought the piece back to Poland, where he placed it in his mother, Princess Isabella Charterreschi's private museum. In 1939, the Germans invaded Poland. The family patriarch at the time, Prince Augustin Yosef Chartierrezky, decided to rescue multiple important pieces from the Charterreschi Museum and hide them. And one of the pieces was portrait of a young man. Charterreski then took the painting from the museum and hid it in a walled outbuilding at a residence in Shinyava, Poland. Unfortunately for the prince, the Nazis discovered the arts hiding place just two weeks later. The painting was then sent to Berlin for consideration by Hitler's

Starting point is 00:08:47 art collecting officials before returning to occupied Poland, where it came into the possession of Hans Frank, the Nazi governor of Poland. It was displayed in his residence at Wavall Castle in Krakha, but in the final months of the war it was subsequently transported westward during the German evacuation. Its last documented whereabouts were in Lower Silesia in January 1945, shortly before it disappeared. The Allies arrested Frank in May of 1945 at his villa. Other valuable paintings stolen from the Charterusky Museum were found in return. However, portrait of a young man was not among them. Every once in a while new information about the portrait's location comes to light.

Starting point is 00:09:33 Many theorize that it could be located in a mysterious private collection in Germany, Switzerland, Russia, or the United States, though no official information about its whereabouts has ever been confirmed. The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is confident that the painting survived the war and that it was stolen. If recovered, the painting would probably be worth over $100 million. In 2016, the Polar State purchased the Charterreschi Museum Collection for $100 million, and that included the rights to Portrait of a Young Man, should it ever be found. The original frame is currently on display in the museum, awaiting the portrait's rightful return.

Starting point is 00:10:17 The loss of the painting is considered a reminder of the cultural looting within Poland that took place during the war. The final painting I'll be covering today is a series of three paintings known as the Klimt University of Vienna Sealing paintings or the faculty paintings. Gustav Klimt, alongside his younger brother Ernst and fellow student friends Mach, established an artistic partnership known as the Company of Artists. The group received prestigious commissions to decorate theaters and public buildings throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Starting point is 00:10:49 His work earned him the Golden Cross of Merritt, from Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1888 and the Emperor's Prize in 1890. By the early 1890s, Klimt was one of Vienna's most respective decorative painters. However, he gradually abandoned his conventional academic style in favor of the more radical Art Nouveau style. Art Nouveau was popular from around 1890 to 1910. The style deliberately moved away from academic and mass-produced art, merging fine art with applied decorative art. In 1894, the Austrian Ministry of Education commissioned Klimt and Motch to paint the ceiling of the University of Vienna's Great Hall. Klimt painted three subjects,

Starting point is 00:11:33 philosophy, medicine, and jurisprudence, while Motch painted theology. The first painting was philosophy. The painting was highly regarded internationally, but criticized by Austrians. The main problem was that the painting was disturbing because it portrayed men and women as being in a trance and painted humanity in a poor light. The second painting, Medicine, was designed to show the ambiguous nature of life and death. It showed nudity, a skeleton, an infant, and the goddess of health, Hygia, turning her back to humanity. Critics argued that the painting showed nothing about medicine or healing and ignored medicine's main achievements, particularly preventing in curing disease.

Starting point is 00:12:16 The final painting was jurisprudence. The painting depicts a naked, condemned, man trapped in the coils of a giant octopus-like creature and surrounded by three female figures representing the furies of Greek mythology. Above him, the distant figures of truth, justice, and law appeared detached from his suffering. The paintings provoked a major public controversy because they challenged prevailing artistic and moral conventions. Critics accused Klimt of pornography and excessive perversity, and 87 University of Vienna professors signed a petition protesting the installation of philosophy.

Starting point is 00:12:53 Although prosecutors became involved, they never arrested Klimt. In 1905, Klimt withdrew from the commission and agreed to repay the advances that he had received from the Austrian government. His wealthy patron, August Letterer, helped finance this repayment and acquired the philosophy painting. Fellow artist and Vienna secession co-founder Coleman Mosier subsequently acquired medicine and jurisprudence sometime between 1910 and 1912. In 1919, Mosier's family sold medicine and jurisprudence.

Starting point is 00:13:27 Medicine eventually entered the collection of the Austrian gallery, while jurisprudence was acquired by August Lederer, who already owned philosophy. Following the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, the Lederer family was persecuted for being Jewish, and the Nazis seized their art, including philosophy and jurisprudence. All of the paintings were stored at the Schloss-Imersdorf castle but were destroyed in 1945 when retreating SS troops set the entire castle on fire. All three paintings were destroyed. Even worse than the originals being destroyed is that no color photographs of the paintings were ever taken.

Starting point is 00:14:07 Only a few black and white photographs exist. In 2021, attempts were made to reconstruct the paintings. In a joint effort by Google and the Leopold Museum, they helped create the possible colors of all three paintings. The art stolen and destroyed during World War II represents a loss that goes far beyond its monetary value. Every missing masterpiece is a piece of history taken from future generations. While some stolen works have been recovered in the decade since the war, countless others remain missing, hidden away in private collections, forgotten in storage, or destroyed forever. The Amber Room, Raphael's portrait of a young man, and Klim's faculty paintings are just three

Starting point is 00:14:50 examples of the enormous cultural devastation left in the war's wake. Their stories remind us that war's destruction is not limited to lives in cities, but also to irreplaceable works of art. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research and writing for this episode was provided by Olivia Ash. My big thanks go to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord. This is where everything happens that's outside of the show. As always, if you leave a review on any major podcast app or in the above community groups,

Starting point is 00:15:35 you too can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Lost Masterpieces of World War II

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