18 Dec. 45
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir; I will describe them later. I
believe each one of them is identified in addition to the inventory.
THE PRESIDENT: I meant whether the articles — the furniture or
pictures themselves, have been found.
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir, most of them were found in an underground
cavern, I believe in the southern part of Bavaria; and these books were
found by our staff in connection with the group of U.S. Army people who
have assembled these objects of art and are now in the process of
returning them to the rightful owners. That is where we got these books.
I should like to refer, while Your Honors are looking at these, just to
the aggregate totals of the different paintings. Here are the totals as
shown by Document 1015(b)-PS, which is in the document book. As they are
totalled, I don't think Your Honors need to follow the document; you can
continue looking at the books if you like.
"Up to 15 July 1944 the following had
been scientifically inventoried:
"21,903 Works of Art:
"5,281 paintings, pastels, water colors, drawings; 684
miniatures, glass and enamel paintings, illuminated books and
manuscripts; 583 sculptures, terra cottas, medallions, and plaques;
2,477 articles of furniture of art historical value; 583 textiles
(tapestries, rugs, embroideries, Coptic textiles); 5,825 objects of
decorative art (porcelains, bronzes, faience, majolica, ceramics,
jewelry, coins, art objects with precious stones); 1,286 East Asiatic
art works (bronzes, sculpture, porcelains, paintings, folding screens,
weapons); 259 art works of antiquity (sculptures, bronzes, vases,
jewelry, bowls, engraved gems, terra cottas)."
The mere statement that 21,903 art works have been seized does not
furnish an adequate conception of their value. I refer again to the
statement in the document "The extraordinary artistic and intrinsic
value of the seized art works cannot be expressed in figures," and
to the fact that they are objects of such a unique character that their
evaluation is entirely impossible. These 39 volumes are by no means a
complete catalogue. They present, at the most, pictures of about 2,500
of the art objects seized; and I ask you to imagine that this catalogue
had been completed and that, in the place of 39 volumes, we had 350 to
400 volumes. In other words, if they were prepared in inventory form as
these 39 volumes, to, cover all of them it would take 350 to 400
volumes.
We had arranged, Your Honor, to project just a few of these on the
screen; but before we do that, which is the end of this