Art: Nudes for Hermann

Allied and Papal officials in Rome rubbed their hands and prepared to break out the rescued Italian art from 45 crates turned over by the Nazis to the Vatican (TIME, July 17). Last week they rubbed their eyes. Missing from the crates were 13 of the Naples’ Museum’s masterpieces, a scattering of lesser art works. Among the missing: a Raphael Madonna, Fra Filippo Lippi’s Annunciation, Titian’s Lavinia and Danae (value: between $500,000 and $800,000), Peter Breughel’s The Blind Leading the Blind—the only Breughel in Italy. Total estimated value of the missing art (by Andy Mellon standards): from two to three million dollars.

The 45 crates had been hauled from Monte Cassino, their first hiding place, by trucks of the Hermann Goering Division. Best guess was that the Titians had disappeared into flesh-loving Hermann’s gallery of high-class nudes, the Breughel into Linz’s Hitler Museum, which specializes in the Flemish masters.