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Transporting cargo to Herrenchiemsee

An index of losses incurred during World War II is now being drawn up by the Inventory Department at the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen. Six 18th-century Italian paintings that appeared at a small auction house in the USA in 2008 and were restituted by way of compromise, acted as a catalyst for this project. Up until 1945, these works were in the official residence of a high-ranking Party functionary. At the present stage of research, some 700 works are missing although, in many instances, it must be assumed that many were destroyed during the war. The focus is exclusively on works that were distributed throughout the state as permanent loans and which could not be put into safe keeping in time. As is well known, the holdings of paintings in the institutions in Munich and in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen’s branch galleries came through the war unscathed.