Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, General: Political and Economic Matters, Volume II

8001515/11–145

The Secretary of State to Certain Diplomatic and Consular Officers ⁵⁵

Washington , November 1, 1945.

The Secretary of State refers to the Department’s airmail Circular Instruction of December 6, 1944⁵⁶ to American Diplomatic Officers in the other American republics and of January 16, 1945⁵⁷ to American Diplomatic and Consular Officers except those in the other American republics both entitled “Safehaven Project”, and to related communications.

The Department is concerned with the possibility that art objects may be utilized for financing a resurgence of Axis activity in foreign countries. There are continuing indications of movements of looted and Axis-owned objects to all parts of the world. The art may be smuggled in personal luggage or forwarded through regular and open channels with no indication of origin and true ownership. The Department anticipates that persons having in their possession enemy-owned and stolen art objects will attempt to conceal them for a number of years in the hope that public and official interest and alertness will subside with the lapse of time. It is also reasonable to assume that such persons will be eager to export them to the United States, preferably from a non-European port, thereby gaining the double advantage of profiting from the high prices offered in the American market and arousing less suspicion than would attach to a shipment from Europe.

If the art market in its area is an actual or potential outlet for Axis-owned or looted art, the missions should report in detail information concerning the market and the leading personalities connected with it. Reports from the mission should also describe laws or regulations, if any, applicable to works of art other than the usual import and export declarations.

Information concerning particular instances of traffic in art objects, suspected or known to be enemy tainted, should be promptly reported. Reports on cases in the rumor stage or under investigation or recommended for intelligence investigation should be graded Secret or Confidential depending on the nature of the material.

When reports of suspected loot or Safehaven art objects come to the attention of officers in the field and there is ground for suspecting that an investigation of the matter would lead to the detection of important persons or plans connected with underground Axis activities, the mission should proceed with caution. Considerations of immediate sequestration, recovery, or restitution of the art object should be subordinated temporarily to the successful operation of intelligence activities designed to disclose to the appropriate agencies of this Government the important Axis persons and plans involved. Reports on such matters should be graded “Secret” during the continuation of such operations. Every effort should be made, however, to prevent the destruction of or injury to valuable or irreplaceable objects of cultural interest.

Reports on art works suspected of being or known to be Axis-owned or looted should give the most complete and accurate information obtainable, including but not limited to the following points. Fragments of information or rumors should be reported if more complete data are not available:

(1) Description of work:

a) Title if any

b) Name of artist or school

c) Date or period of production

d) Material or medium

e) Size (Exact dimensions in centimeters)^*

f) Labels and marks

g) Value

h) Three photographs, if possible, of the more valuable paintings or sculpture

i) Citation to published reproduction

(2) Present location

(3) Names and addresses of:

a) Possessor, storage establishment or shipping agent

b) Ostensible owner, handler, cloak, or dealer

c) Real owner at date of report with date of his acquisition and terms or method of acquisition

(4) Provenance: List previous owners including names of collections and museums with dates of transfer and terms of sale.

(5) Give such information as can be obtained regarding the movement or shipment of the art object from the time it left an Axis or Axis-occupied country until it reached its present location, including dates of shipment, names of countries and cities from and to which the object was shipped, names and addresses of the shippers, consignees, or other handlers.

As a matter of administrative convenience, the following definition of “art object” prescribed by the Bureau of Customs for use by collectors of customs under the Trading with the Enemy Act may be used for the purpose of Safehaven reports on looted or Axis-owned art:

“… the term ‘art object’ shall include any of the following, if there is reasonable cause to believe that the article or lot of articles included in one importation, export shipment, or sale lot (i) is worth $5,000 or more, or (ii) is of artistic, historic, or scholarly interest irrespective of monetary value:

(a) paintings in oil, mineral, water, or other colors, tempera, pastels, drawings and sketches in pen, ink, pencil, or water colors, engravings, woodcuts, prints, lithographs, miniatures;

(b) statuary, sculptures;

(c) china ware, glassware, pottery, porcelain;

(d) rugs, tapestries, laces, and other textiles;

(e) jewelry, metalwork;

(f) books, manuscripts, archival materials and records;

(g) furniture;

(h) curios

A background report on “Looted Art in Occupied Territories, Neutral Countries and Latin-America” has been completed by the Foreign Economic Administration and is enclosed for the mission’s information.⁵⁸ The picture of the situation set forth in this report is being continually modified by reports received from the field. It is the intention of the Department to keep the missions informed of current developments in connection with this problem affecting the respective areas.

55. Sent to 214 Diplomatic and Consular Officers.
56. Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. ii, p. 243.
57. Ante, p. 852.
58. (Without frame, mat, or pedestal, etc.) [Footnote in the original.]
58. Not printed. This report of 34 pages gives information on the outstanding collections which were looted by German agents or buyers, the Einsatzstab (Task Force) Rosenberg which specialized in confiscating and removing art assembled by Jewish collectors, and official acts of the Reich Government, such as the seizure of the Dirck Bouts Altarpiece from Louvain and the Van Eyck “Adoration of the Lamb” awarded to Belgium by the Reparation clauses of the Treaty of Versailles (see Foreign Relations, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, vol. xiii, p. 525). Lists of suspected agents in European countries as well as German nationals inside and outside the Reich who were suspected of participating in these art activities are included. (800.515/11–145)