[CPProt.net] Australia: Looting cloud over angel from 'Nazi' dealer

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Looting cloud over angel from 'Nazi' dealer
Rick Wallace
05dec05

A SCULPTURE in the National Gallery of Australia that appears on a looted
art risk-list passed through the hands of a German art dealer regarded as a
leading trader to the Nazis.

Art experts say the fact the 16th-century bronze angel was once acquired by
dealer Julius Bohler is a clear warning it may have been looted from a
Jewish family. 
The NGA has launched a fresh investigation into the angel's history, using
information provided by The Australian. But mystery has deepened over the
multi-million-dollar sculpture's past, with descendants of the dealer
claiming his firm bought and sold it in the 1920s, before the Nazis came to
power. 

The angel is among 86 works -- including priceless paintings by Monet,
Cezanne, Picasso and Rubens -- on an NGA list of pieces with suspicious gaps
in their ownership during Nazi rule. 

The Nazis stole vast amounts of art between 1933 and 1945. Most of it was
taken from Jewish families in Europe. 

Amid growing global efforts to return stolen works to their owners'
descendants, the NGA and other galleries compiled and published risk lists
to assist potential claimants. 

But NGA curators were unaware of Julius Bohler's murky past -- revealed in
postwar intelligence files -- until informed by The Australian. 

The declassified intelligence files identify Bohler as a "strong Nazi" who
"amassed a fortune acting as art agent for many high-placed Nazis". The
files, from the US Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner to the CIA),
also say Bohler was a dealer to Luftwaffe chief and deputy fuhrer Hermann
Goering. 

Goering, although fond of saying "When I hear the word culture, I reach for
my revolver", amassed a collection of looted art second only to Adolf
Hitler's. 

When asked about Bohler's history, former art dealer turned looted-art
whistleblower Michel van Rijn said Bohler was "a big son of a bitch". 

"He collaborated (with the Nazis) and if a museum has a major work and
Bohler is on the provenance then red flags should be raised," he said. 

Jonathan Petropoulos, the author of two books on looted art, described
Bohler as "a very problematic dealer" who "basically got off without any
significant penalties". 

"His name constitutes a red flag in any provenance, " he said. 

Bohler's dealership still exists, but its current chief, Florian
Eitle-Bohler, said he was unaware of accusations the firm dealt in looted
art with the Nazis. 

He said the firm's records show the angel was bought in 1923 and sold in
1928, five years before the Nazi regime came to power in Germany. But the
NGA's original research found that the angel appeared on the Berlin art
market in the late 1920s and ended up with Bohler after that. 

The angel's creator, Flemish-Italian artist Giambologna, was the most
successful sculptor of his time.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/