Looted art

Looted art has been a consequence of looting during war, natural disaster and riot for centuries. Looting of art, archaeology and other cultural property may be an opportunistic criminal act or may be a more organized case of unlawful or unethical pillage by the victor of a conflict. The term "looted art" reflects bias, and whether particular art has been taken legally or illegally is often the subject of conflicting laws and subjective interpretations of governments and people; use of the term "looted art" in reference to a particular art object implies that the art was taken illegally.

Related terms include ''art theft'' (the stealing of valuable artifacts, mostly because of commercial reasons), ''illicit antiquities'' (covertly traded antiquities or artifacts of archaeological interest, found in illegal or unregulated excavations), '' provenance'' (the origin or source of a piece of art), and '' art repatriation'' (the process of returning artworks and antiques to their rightful owners).

History

Art looting has a long history, the winning party of armed conflicts often plundering the loser, and in the absence of social order, the local population often joining in. The contents of nearly all the tombs of the Pharaohs were already completely looted by grave robbers before the invasion of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. There have been a total of seven sackings of Rome. The Old Testament includes several references to looting and to the looting of art and treasures; in the Book of Chronicles it is said: "King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the Lord's temple and of the royal palace; he took everything, including the gold shields that Solomon had made", and in the Book of Jeremiah 15:11 the Lord says: "Jerusalem, I will surely send you away for your own good. I will surely bring the enemy upon you in a time of trouble and distress ... I will give away your wealth and your treasures as plunder. I will give it away free of charge for the sins you have committed throughout your land." Other famous examples include the Roman Sack of Corinth in 146 BC, the Sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade, the Sack of Baghdad in 1258, Hernán Cortés and the looting of the Aztec gold. In only some of these was the removal of artworks for their own sake (rather than the value of their materials for example) a primary motivation.

Since the rise of an art market for monumental sculpture, abandoned monuments all over the world have been at risk, notably in Iran, Syria and Iraq, the old territories of Mesoamerican culture and Cambodia.

After the looting of Europe by Napoleon, others copied the institutionalized model of systematic plunder and looting. During the American Civil War, legal frameworks and guidelines emerged that justified and legalized the plunder and looting of opposing parties and nations. Henry Wager Halleck, a United States Army officer, scholar, and lawyer argued: "No belligerent would be justifiable in destroying temples, tombs, statutes ic paintings, or other works of art (except so far as their destruction may be the accidental or necessary result of military operations.) But, may he not seize and appropriate to his own use such works of genius and taste as belong to the hostile state, and are of a moveable character?"

In July 1862, Francis Lieber, a professor at Columbia College, who had worked with Halleck on guidelines for guerrilla warfare, was asked by Halleck, now General-in-Chief of armies of the Union, to develop a code of conduct for the armed forces. The code of conduct, published as General Orders No. 100 on 24 April 1863, signed by United States President Abraham Lincoln, later became known as the Lieber CodeFrancis Lieber, LL.D
Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field
. Originally Issued as General Orders No. 100, Adjutant General's Office, 1863, Washington 1898: Government Printing Office and specifically authorized the Armies of the United States to plunder and loot the enemy – a mindset that Hitler's armies copied one century later. The Lieber Code said in Article 36: "If such works of art, libraries, collections, or instruments belonging to a hostile nation or government, can be removed without injury, the ruler of the conquering state or nation may order them to be seized and removed for the benefit of the said nation. The ultimate ownership is to be settled by the ensuing treaty of peace." Russian and American forces relied on similar frameworks when they plundered Germany after the defeat of the Nazis.United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Looted Art. http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/bibliography/index.php?content=looted_art

The Lieber Code further defined the conditions of looting and the relationship between private plunder and booty and institutionalized looting "All captures and booty belong, according to the modern law of war, primarily to the government of the captor." (Article 45), "Neither officers nor soldiers are allowed to make use of their position or power in the hostile country for private gain, not even for commercial transactions otherwise legitimate." (Article 46) and "... large sums are found upon the persons of prisoners, or in their possession, they shall be taken from them, and the surplus, after providing for their own support, appropriated for the use of the army, under the direction of the commander, unless otherwise ordered by the government." (Article 72)

Massive art looting occurred during World War II; see art theft during World War II.

Looting of countries

Looting of Afghanistan

Many art pieces and artifacts from Afghanistan were looted during several wars; scores of artworks were smuggled to Britain and sold to wealthy collectors. "There are also fears that the bulk of the collection once in Kabul Museum, ... is now in smugglers' or collectors' hands. The most famous exhibits were the Begram ivories, a series of exquisite Indian panels nearly 2,000 years old, excavated by French archaeologists in the Thirties (1930s)". In November 2004, much of the missing collection numbering 22,513 items was found safely hidden. Over 200 crates had been moved downtown for storage at the end of the Soviet occupation including the Bactrian gold and Bagram Ivories. Some 228 of these treasures, including pieces of Bactrian Gold and many of the Bagram Ivories, were exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., from 25 May 25 to 7 September 2008.

Looting of Cyprus

Following the invasion of Cyprus in 1974 by Turkey and the occupation of the northern part of the island, churches belonging to the Cypriot Orthodox Church have been looted in what is described as "one of the most systematic examples of the looting of art since World War II".Morris, Chris. “Shame of Cyprus’s Looted Churches”. BBC News. 18 January 2002. Web. 9 February 2012. .Miller, Judith, & Stephen Kinzer. “Greek Orthodox Church Icons Ravaged in the Turkish Part of Cyprus”. The New York Times. 1 April 1998. Web. 5 March 2012. < https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/01/world/greek-orthodox-church-icons-ravaged-in-the-turkish-part-of-cyprus.html?src=pm>. Several-high-profile cases have made headline news on the international scene. Most notable was the case of the Kanakaria mosaics, 6th-century AD frescos that were removed from the original church, trafficked to the US and offered for sale to a museum for the sum of US$20,000,000. These were subsequently recovered by the Orthodox Church following a court case in Indianapolis.

The northern part of the island is where the church and art looting was concentrated.“Cyprus History”. Byzantinefrescochapel.org. The Menil Collection. 2011. Web. 12 February 2012. < http://www.byzantinefrescochapel.org/cyprus-history/>. It is rumored that the Turkish-Cypriot leaders did not feel an obligation to preserve the artifacts and monuments in the north because they felt that the Greek-Cypriot government had oppressed them for too long.

Archaeological sites, museums, churches, monasteries, castles, libraries, and private art collections have all been affected by the looting of the northern area of Cyprus; icons, frescoes, archaeological artifacts, and cultural heritage have been stripped from areas around the island and have been taken to places all over the world or simply destroyed.Jansen, Michael. “The Pillage by Turkey of the 12,000 year old cultural heritage of Cyprus”. Europe’sWorld. Spring 2007. Web. 9 February 2012. < http://www.europesworld.org/EWSettings/Article/tabid/190/ArticleType/ArticleView/ArticleID/20454/Default.aspx>. Some believe that this has been done to 'Turkify' the northern region of the country and erase the characteristics of the Cypriot predecessors, while people like Aydin Dikmen have been working to make money off of cultural heritage artifacts by selling them in international markets.“Turkish Invasion and Cyprus Occupation”. Press and Information Office, Republic of Cyprus. CyprusNet.com. 2005. Web. 12 February 2012. < >.Rose, Mark. “From Cyprus to Munich”. Archaeological Institute of America. 20 April 1998. Web. 9 February 2012. . It was one of the most systematic examples of the looting of art since World War II.

Non-Christian places of importance

Many non-Christian sites have been affected by the looting and destruction of northern Cyprus. During the time of the invasion, work on archaeological sites was halted. While the projects on the Greek-Cypriot southern area were started again after a short period of delay, the projects in the Turkish north were never started again. Many of the houses and workshops associated with archaeological projects in the north were looted, so the work that had been done was lost to the researchers.Nicolaou, Kyriakos. 1976. “Archaeological News from Cyprus, 1974”. American Journal of Archaeology, 80 (4):361-375. Many areas on the island of Cyprus were damaged by bombing and machine gun fire, and because of these issues, the pavement mosaics of the House of Dionysos in Paphos suffered extensive damage. The fighting not only was destroying Byzantine and Christian cultural heritage, but it was even destroying culture that had been in existence for far longer. There have been appeals filed with UNESCO, ICOM, and ICOMOS to help with the preservation of the remaining cultural heritage on the island, and a representative of UNESCO was appointed to help by 1976.

Looted religious sites and icons

On the island of Cyprus before the invasion, the majority of the inhabitants were Greek-Cypriots, and for these citizens, the Greek Orthodox Church was and continues today to be central to their identity and faith. In the north, there is a fear that Christianity is dying out because the churches and monasteries have been destroyed, transformed, or are falling into ruin. The northern Turkish inhabitants have transformed some former religious sites into mosques, army barracks, stables, night clubs and hotels, and it has been documented that only 3 churches and 1 monastery are currently in a dignified state out of the 520 churches and monasteries that were in the northern area of the country before the Turkish invasion.“Greek Orthodox Church sues Turkey Over Access to Religious Sites in Cyprus”. The Guardian. The Associated Press in Nicosia. 23 November 2009. Web. 9 February 2012. .Magister, Sandro. ”Cyprus: Portrait of a Christianity Obliterated”. Chiesa News. Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso Spa. 3 September 2006. Web. 9 February 2012. . At least 55 churches have been converted into mosques, while another 50 churches and monasteries have been converted into other structures to serve the Turkish-Cypriots'. A spokesman for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus stated that the transformations of buildings happened because the buildings were falling into ruin, and he also stated that it is an Ottoman custom to transform buildings attributed to other religions into mosques; this idea can be linked to other Islamic sites, like the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Israel.

Yannis Eliades, the director of the Byzantine Museum of Nicosia, has estimated that 25,000 icons have disappeared since the Turkish military initially invaded the island in 1974, while others estimate that between 15,000 and 20,000 icons are missing, along with dozens of frescoes and mosaics dating between the 6th and 15th centuries, thousands of chalices, wood carvings, crucifixes, and Bibles. However, there have been some case in which the Church of Cyprus was able to reclaim icons or mosaics, and this is a great step forward for the reformation of their cultural heritage.

The transformations of religious sites have also spurred lawsuits from the few hundred Greek-Cypriots that are still living in the northern area. The Greek Orthodox Church has taken Turkey to the European Court of Human Rights because they were preventing practicing Christians from worshiping at previously religious, but currently transformed buildings. Even though the buildings have been destroyed or converted, the Greek-Cypriot citizens still want to be able to worship at these places to keep continuity with their faith without regard to the destruction.

Aydin Dikmen considered a key suspect

Aydin Dikmen is a 60-year-old man who has been arrested in relation to the looting and selling of looted goods from the island of Cyprus. He had been suspected of being involved in the selling of looted art since 1982, but he kept a low profile and fell off the radar for some time. His involvement was cemented when Peg Goldberg was sued by the Church of Cyprus in 1989 because she knew that she bought the mosaics from Dikmen; he claimed that he found the remains in the rubble of a church that had been forgotten and basically destroyed while he was working as an archaeologist in the northern part of Cyprus.Bourloyannis, M. Christiane, and Virginia Morris. 1992. “Autocephalous Greek-Orthodox Church of Cyprus v. Goldberg & Feldman Fine Arts, Inc”. The American Journal of International Law, 86 (1): 128-133. We also have documentation of another transaction where Dikmen worked with art collectors in the United States; Dominique de Menil, of the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, bought two 13th-century frescoes from Dikmen on behalf of the Church of Cyprus in 1983.

Those two previous cases are only two cases in which Dikmen's presence has been suggested; he has been implicated in many more transactions, but those accusations have yet to be proven. However, in 1997, former colleagues of Dikmen helped the authorities arrest Dikmen and raid his many apartments. In these apartments, some of which Dikmen rented under false names and used as storage space, the authorities found a surplus of icons, frescoes, early Bibles, ancient pottery, statues, and coins from Cyprus. After learning of another residence of Dikmen's, the authorities found 30 to 40 more crates filled with icons, frescoes, mosaics, and artifacts. Also in one of the residences, the authorities found drawings containing information on how to cut out mosaics to keep the faces of the religious figures intact, while still taking the piece away from the original space; this shows how systematic and planned out the looting of the churches and monasteries was for Dikmen and his associates in the northern part of Cyprus. The organization and the intense planning involved brings up the issue of possible aid coming from Turkish authorities in the northern part of Cyprus; there are rumors that the government and military knew about the looting and chose to not do anything about it. This discomforting idea is continually straining the ties between Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus.

Since Dikmen's arrest in 1998, the Antiphonitis frescoes and the Kanakarian mosaics have been returned to Cyprus, and soon the 13th-century frescoes currently housed by the Menil Collection in Houston will be returned to the island, as well.“The Menil Collection Celebrates Return of Byzantine Frescoes With Public Events Honoring Sacred Works”. Byzantine Fresco Chapel News. The Menil Collection. 30 January 2012. Web. 7 February 2012. < http://www.menil.org/documents/MenilCelebratesReturnofByzantineFrescoeswithPublicEventsHonoringSacredWorks.pdf>. The search for the looted art of Cyprus continues, and there seems to be more and more evidence of Dikmen's presence in other transactions of international looted art. Many think that Dikmen is just a middle man who is working on behalf of more knowledgeable and rich patrons, but the mystery is still not solved.

Cases of repatriation

=The Menil Collection and 13th-century frescoes

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One case of repatriation for the Church of Cyprus is associated with the Menil Collection, based in Houston, Texas.Hadjicostis, Menalaos. “Cyprus to get back rare 13th-century Orthodox frescoes from United States Museum”. Artdaily.org. The Associated Press. 1 October 2011. Web. 7 February 2012. < http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=50797&b=cyprus>. This particular collection is one of the most important collections of icons, which have originated in areas such as Greece, the Balkans, and Russia and span a diverse range of times from the 6th to 18th centuries.“Imprinting the Divine: Byzantine and Russian Icons from Houston’s Menil Collection”. Artdaily.org. The Associated Press. 21 October 2011. Web. 7 February 2012. < http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=51235&b=cyprus>. Dominique de Menil, the founder of the Menil Collection, found the three 13th-century Byzantine frescoes for sale in 1983, by which time they had been separated into 38 different pieces.“Byzantine Frescoes: Rescue and Restoration”. Byzantinefrescochapel.org. The Menil Collection. 2011. Web. 7 February 2012. < http://www.byzantinefrescochapel.org/rescue-and-restoration/>. De Menil bought the frescoes on behalf of the Church of Cyprus, with whom she made an agreement to exhibit the frescoes in a purpose-built chapel until 2012; the collection offered to keep the frescoes longer, but the Archbishop of Cyprus has instead agreed to have an iconographer recreate the frescoes on the Houston chapel's dome and apse and give the Houston chapel a 19th- and a 20th-century icon in return for the safekeeping of the 13th-century icons.

The original Cypriot chapel in the Church of Saint Euphemianos in the village of Lysi, in the northern part of Cyprus was a small limestone structure, with a central dome and pointed barrel vaults; the original was mostly used for prayer because of its small size. When the de Menil collection was granted temporary possession of the frescoes, they constructed a chapel to house the frescoes and keep them safe. This specially built chapel was designed by De Menil's husband, François de Menil, who studied traditional Byzantine architecture and spatial arrangement from the original chapel at Lysi; the layout and the placement of the mosaics mirrors the arrangement from the original chapel.“The Byzantine Fresco Chapel: Architecture”. Byzantinefrescochapel.org. The Menil Collection. 2011. Web. 7 February 2012. < http://www.byzantinefrescochapel.org/architecture/>. The interior of the chapel has black walls which are illuminated to create a sense of vastness and infinity; the black walls help to focus the attention of the viewer on the frescoes and create a divine experience for the viewer.

Icons are important because they depict images of greater significance, and they are used to instruct and inspire worship. These particular Cypriot frescoes have been identified with three different religious images: Christ Pantocrator surrounded by a frieze of angels, the Preparation of the Throne attended by the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist, and the Virgin Mary flanked by Archangels Michael and Gabriel. The collection announced that 4 March 2012 would be the last day to see the frescoes in their place in Houston after being on long-term exhibit for 15 years. The frescoes in this collection are the largest intact Byzantine frescoes that can be seen in the Western Hemisphere.

=Boy George and the Gold Icon of Christ

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One Cypriot artifact that has been found was in the home of pop singer Boy George, also known as George O'Dowd.“Boy George Returns Christ Icon to Cyprus Church”. BBC News. 19 January 2011. Web. 7 February 2012. < https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12228059>. The artifact, a golden icon of Christ, had been hanging above the singer's fireplace for 26 years, until the piece was recognized by a patron watching a TV interview of O'Dowd, which was taped in the singer's living room.“Boy George, his Striking Icon and the Cypriot Bishop”. In the Frame. The Art Newspaper. 20 January 2011. Web. 7 February 2012. < http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Boy%20George,%20his%20striking%20icon%20and%20the%20Cypriot%20bishop/22326>.Hadjicostis, Menalaos. “Cyprus’ Orthodox Christian Church Thanks Singer Boy George for Icon’s Return”. Artdaily.org. The Associated Press. 22 January 2011. Web. 7 February 2012. < http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=44362&b=cyprus>.Michaels, Sean. “Boy George Returns Lost Icon to Cyprus Church”. The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. 20 January 2011. Web. 7 February 2012. < http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jan/20/boy-george-icon-cyprus-church>. The icon is thought to have been stolen around 1974, during the chaotic time of the Turkish invasion of the Northern part of Cyprus, and there is documentation to believe that the icon was once housed in The Church of St. Charalambos in Neo Chorio-Kythrea. O'Dowd was unaware that the icon had been stolen because he bought the artifact "with good faith" from an art dealer in 1985. The singer is glad that the piece is going back to its original home because he wants everyone to see it on display in its rightful place. However, it will not be going back to the original Church in the northern part of Cyprus; it is being held in Brussels, Belgium, and it will return to Cyprus at a later date when The Church of Cyprus has an appropriate space in which it can be stored. This case has contributed to the Church of Cyprus and their efforts to repatriate "stolen spiritual treasures" that have come from their homeland of Cyprus.

=Peg Goldberg and the Kanakaria mosaics

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This case study outlines the events that occurred in 1989 between Peg Goldberg, a local art dealer in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the Church of Cyprus when Goldberg gained "ownership" and then tried to sell Cypriot mosaics from the 6th century. These mosaics have been looted from the Church of the Virgin of Kanakaria in the village of Lythrangomi in Northern Cyprus after surviving the 8th and 9th century. These mosaics had survived the 8th- and 9th-century iconoclasm in the Byzantine world and were considered to be finer than other mosaics, even the mosaics found in Ravenna, Italy and the mosaics in St. Catherine's monastery in Sinai. The Kanakaria mosaics were cut into pieces when they were looted from the original church, and Peg Goldberg was able to purchase four segments of these early mosaics from Aydin Dikmen. These mosaics are important to the cultural, artistic, and religious heritage of Cyprus because they are some of the few remaining Byzantine mosaics from the island; when and how these mosaics were taken from Cyprus is unknown because there is documentation to show that they were still intact in 1976, two years after the initial invasion by the Turkish troops.

These mosaics first came into the view of the Church of Cyprus when Goldberg approached the Getty Museum to purchase the mosaic pieces. The Getty Museum recognized them as the lost Kanakaria mosaics and informed Cyprus that they were in the United States. Shortly afterward, the Church of Cyprus filed a claim at the district court to try to reclaim the mosaics. The federal court in Indiana made a verdict in favor of the Church of Cyprus, and the mosaics were returned in 1991 to the Byzantine Museum in Nicosia, Cyprus. The verdict showed that Goldberg could not own the pieces because Dikmen had stolen the mosaics and had no right to pass on the ownership of the stolen mosaics. Goldberg stated that the pieces had been bought "in good faith" from a "Turkish antiquities dealer" who found the mosaics in an abandoned church, but the judge ruled that not looking into the background and workings of the dealer was unacceptable because it was her responsibility to look into the people she was working with. This case called in the multilateral treaty of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, which calls for all available parties to help recover and return items that have been requested by the country of origin; using this international decree helped to show the importance of these artifacts which needed to be sent to their home land of Cyprus. People have been happy with this verdict for the Kanakaria case because they want others to realize that cultural heritage of the world is not for sale, and hopefully discourage further selling of looted art in the international market. Honan, William H. “Art Dealer Told Again to Return Mosaics”. Arts. The New York Times. 26 Oct 1990. Web. 1 March 2012. < https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/26/arts/art-dealer-told-again-to-return-mosaics.html?emc=eta1>.

The mosaic pieces that were involved in the Kanakaria case have four different religious images. They depict Jesus as a young boy, the archangel Michael, Matthew and James; the final two are images of apostles from the 1st century. The mosaics were named after the Church in which they were placed originally around 530. These mosaics have fallen into destruction because of the damage that they experienced through the process of removal from the church, shipping around the world, and during the restoration work that Goldberg commissioned. It is unlikely that these mosaics will ever be reinstalled in their original home, even if there are changes in the political situation on Cyprus, because they would most likely not make it through the re-installation process in the state that they are currently in.

Looting of Germany

After World War II, Germany was looted by Allied and Soviet forces; the systematic pillaging and looting by the Allies (particularly the Soviet Union) is still causing disputes and conflicts between Germany, Russia and the United States, as many of the objects have never been returned to Germany.

The Soviet plunder of Europe's art treasuresAkinsha, Konstantin, et al. ''Beautiful Loot: The Soviet Plunder of Europe's Art Treasures''. New York: Random House, 1995 constituted institutionalized revenge, while the American military's role in the stealing of Europe's treasuresAlford, Kenneth D. ''The Spoils of World War II: The American Military's Role in the Stealing of Europe's Treasures''. New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1994 mostly involved individuals looting for personal gain.

The looting of Germany by the Soviet Union was not limited to official Trophy Brigades, but included many ordinary soldiers and officials who plundered for personal reasons. At least 2.5 million artworks and 10 million books and manuscriptsRobert Hughes
The Spoils of War
''Time''. April 3, 1995 disappeared in the Soviet Union and later in Russia, including but not limited to Gutenberg Bibles and Impressionist paintings once in German private collections. According to ''Time'' magazine, the Soviets created special "hit lists ... of what the Soviet Union wanted" and followed the historical "examples" given by Napoleon, Hitler, British and American armies. Other estimates focus on German artworks and cultural treasures supposedly secured against bombing in safe places that were looted after World War II, detailing 200,000 works of art, three kilometers of archival material and three million books.Peter Bruhn: Beutekunst – Trophy Art. Bibliography of the international literature on the fate of the cultural treasures displaced as trophies by the Red Army from Germany to the USSR in the result of World War II and situated now on the territory of the Russian Federation and other republics of the former Soviet Union. 4th edition. München: Sagner, 2003. In an updated version also available as bibliographical database

Germany's collections lost 180,000 artworks, which, according to cultural experts are "being held in secret depots in Russia and Poland". The stolen artworks include sculptures by Nicola Pisano, reliefs by Donatello, Gothic Madonnas, paintings by Botticelli and Van Dyck and Baroque works rendered in stone and wood. In 2007, Germany published a catalog of missing artworks to document the extent, prevent the resale, and speed up the return of the war booty. Berlin's State Museum alone lost around 400 artworks during World War II. The German state (Land) of Saxony-Anhalt still maintains a list entitled ''Beutekunst'' ("Looted Art") of more than 1000 missing paintings and books believed confiscated by the US or the Soviet Union.

Poland is also in possession of some collections that Germany evacuated to remote places in Eastern Germany (the so-called "Recovered Territories" that are part of Poland since 1945) as well as in occupied Poland. Among those there is a large collection from Berlin, which in Polish referred to as '' Berlinka''. Another notable collection in Polish possession is Hermann Göring's collection of 25 historic airplanes (''Deutsche Luftfahrt Sammlung'') – ironically, it contains two Polish planes captured by Germans during their invasion of Poland (including a PZL P-11c of Army Kraków).Rosjanie oddają skradzione dzieła sztuki
Gazeta Wyborcza, 2007-10-14 Poland refuses to return those collections to Germany unless Germany returns some of the collections looted in Poland and still in its possession in exchange.

Entire libraries and archives with files from all over Europe were looted and their files taken to Russia by the Soviet Trophy Brigades. The Russian State Military Archive (Rossiiskii Gosudarstvenni Voennyi Arkhiv- RGVA) still contains a large number of files of foreign origin, including papers relating to Jewish organisations.

Berlin's Gemäldegalerie the Kulturforum lost 441 major paintings, among them seven works by Peter Paul Rubens, three Caravaggios and three Van Dycks. The looted artworks might still be in "secret depositories ... in Moscow and St Petersburg".Looted lady
The Guardian. August 2, 2006 Veteran BBC
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