This question obviously cannot but be uppermost in our minds in view of the fact that present conditions in Germany are apparently such as to warrant leaving there thousands of German-owned works of art of great moment which belong not only to the Kaiser Friedrich Museum but to the museums of other cities in the American zone, including the great collection of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, where under satisfactory conditions and auspices an exhibition of early German art, including masterpieces by Dürer, Grünewald and others, is now being held.
It is in fact one of our perplexities that we have never been told why our officials discriminated against important pictures and art objects (many times the number of those urgently transported to this country for safekeeping) which were also formerly in the Kaiser Friedrich and other museums, not forgetting those which were in South German churches. Were they just left to their fate?
If it were convenient at any time to pass on to the President our continued anxieties on these important points we should be happy to have you do so.
Sincerely yours,
June 3, 1946
Dear Mr. Acheson:
In reply to your letter of the twenty-second with reference to our resolution supported by the signatures of ninety-five of our colleagues prominent in museums or experts in the history and preservation of old masters and other works of art, permit us to say that, in the absence of Secretary Byrnes, we took the liberty of sending you the resolution.
We are aware of the statement released by the White House on September 26, 1945 explaining the situation and promising to return the pictures to Germany when conditions there should warrant such action. We are, however, still uninformed why the unanimous advice of the monuments officers, who had special training and technical knowledge not only of the conditions required for the preservation of old masters but of the certain dangers to which journeys subject them, was disregarded.
We have also never been told whether the conditions believed to jeopardize the safety of these important pictures were of a practical or of a political nature. Neither do we know why, out of the great and extensive collections of the Kaiser Friedrich only two hundred pictures were selected nor by whom the selection was made. More serious still no official mention has ever been made of the fact that there were in the possession of the other museums of Berlin and other cities, including the famous collection of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, as well as in the churches of the American Zone, art objects and pictures many times more numerous than the paintings actually brought to this country for safekeeping. One cannot but ask: Were satisfactory conditions found for them or were they merely left to their fate?
These are questions that have given and still give rise to rumors, unhappy conjectures and ambiguous interpretations which we deplore. Unreasonably or otherwise the whole situation is confused by implications that we feel will not be laid until the pictures deposited in Washington have been sent back with the least possible delay to their rightful owners on whom devolves an unequivocable responsibility for their care and preservation.