Art: War Among the Masterpieces

“No one dared hope that the art of Europe would get off as easily as it has.” With this preamble, Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum Director Francis H. Taylor, newly back from London, Paris and Normandy, last week reported on the state of Europe’s art treasures. Highlights :

¶ Among European United Nations, England has probably suffered the most damage to historic landmarks. Some 4,000 English churches have been hurt by blitz and robot bombing, 2,800 totally destroyed. Hardest hit: Exeter Cathedral.

¶ Worst damage in France is in the Cherbourg-Calais-Rouen area. Rouen Cathedral is in partial ruin.

¶ Most Paris museum collections were well cared for by the Nazis. Reasons: 1) they intended to use Paris as a German playground after the war; 2) German withdrawal from Paris was forced too quickly to permit pillage.

¶ Most notorious artistic collaboration was Vichy Minister of Education Abel Bonnard’s gift to Hermann Göring of the Van Eycks’ famed Ghent altarpiece, Adoration of the Lamb.

¶ In Italy, the most effective agency of protection for art works was the Vatican, which eventually worked with Allied Civil Affairs officers.

¶ Classical remains suffered less damage than was feared. Chief loss was the contents of the latest excavations at Pompeii.

¶ One of the most sensational art losses in Europe was the disappearance of two Titians and of Breughel the Elder’s The Blind Leading the Blind while in transit from the German-held Monte Cassino Abbey to the Vatican.

The Taylor report said little about Belgium and Holland. “As for Germany itself,” it declared, “careful . . . artillery fire and precision bombing to protect art . . . will be followed.”