After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded.
“Hop in, we want to have a talk with you,” I said.
We returned to the farmhouse and followed our truculent host up the stairs to a sitting room on the second floor. There we were joined by his wife, a timid young woman who, like her husband, spoke fluent English.
I said that we had come for the pictures. Rochlitz made no protest. He brusquely directed his wife to bring them in. As she left the room, I thought it odd that he hadn’t gone along to help her. But she returned almost immediately with the paintings in her arms. All twenty-two were rolled around a long mailing tube. Together they spread the canvases about the room, on the table, on the chairs and on the floor. They were, without exception, works of excellent quality. One large early Picasso, the portrait of a woman and child, was alone worth a small fortune.
I was wondering what Rochlitz had given in exchange for the lot, when he began to explain how the pictures had come into his possession. He must have taken us for credulous fools, because the story he told made him out a victim of tragic circumstance. He said that Göring had made an offer on several of his pictures. Rochlitz had accepted but insisted on being paid in cash. Göring had agreed to the terms and the pictures were delivered. Then, instead of paying in cash, Göring had forced him to accept these modern paintings. He had protested, but to no avail. Of course these pictures were all right in their way, he said deprecatingly, but he was not a dealer in modern art. Naturally he did not know that they had been confiscated. It was all a dreadful mistake, but what could he do? I said that I realized how badly he must have felt and that I knew he would be relieved to learn that the pictures were now going back to their rightful owners.
The pictures were carefully rerolled and we got up to leave. At the door, Rochlitz told us that he had lost his entire stock. He had stored all of his paintings at Baden-Baden, in the French Zone. Did we think he would be able to recover them? We assured him that justice would be done and, leaving him to interpret that remark as he saw fit, drove off with the twenty-two pictures.
(9)
HIDDEN TREASURES AT NÜRNBERG
On our return to Munich that evening, Craig told us that preparations were being made for the immediate restitution of several important masterpieces recovered in the American Zone. General Eisenhower had approved a proposal to return at once to each of the countries overrun by the Germans at least one outstanding work of art. This was to be done in his name, as a gesture of “token restitution” symbolizing American policy with regard to ultimate restitution of all stolen art treasures to the rightful owner nations. It was felt that the gracious gesture on the part of the Commanding General of United States Forces in Europe would serve to reaffirm our intentions to right the wrongs of Nazi oppression. In view of the vast amount of art which had thus far been recovered, it would be months before it could all be restored to the plundered countries. Meanwhile these “token restitutions” would be an earnest of American good will. They would be sent back from Germany at the expense of the United States Government. Thereafter, representatives of the various countries would be invited to come to our Collecting Points to select, assemble and, in transportation of their own providing, remove those objects which the Germans had stolen.
Belgium was to receive the first token restitution. The great van Eyck altarpiece—The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb—was the obvious choice among the stolen Belgian treasures.