On the lookout for the rare and beautiful, and the beautifully rare
Ramon E.S. Lerma
There is a cloak of mystery that envelops the fascinating world of art, where objects made out of paint, canvas, wood, paper or sometimes even scraps of metal or found objects are transformed into objects of beauty that command such astonishing prices.
A recently concluded exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum titled "Paintings, Politics and the Monuments Men: The Berlin Masterpieces in America" provides us with important insight into the value of art by showcasing artworks that were looted during the Second World War, the motivations of the perpetrators for their actions, as well as those who resolved to recover them.
'The Monuments Men,' the title of the 2014 movie referred to in the exhibition title, which starred some of Hollywood's brightest stars such as George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Cate Blanchett, depicted the art experts, museum curators, and other private citizens who volunteered to be part of the US Army's Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section. Their chief mission was to hunt down artworks confiscated by the Nazis and hid away.
What is less known—and that is central to this exhibition—was the work that this group carried out to ensure that the works that the Nazis moved from their own museums for safekeeping, and which the victorious Allies were prepared to seize as “war loot,” would eventually be returned to the German people. Led by the Cincinnatian Capt. Walter Farmer, "The Monuments Men" campaigned relentlessly to restitute them in the belief that art belonged not to any one individual or group of individuals, but to the world and to our shared posterity.
The movement of masterpieces such as Sandro Boticcelli's “The Ideal Portrait of A Lady (Simonetta Vespucci),” and Edouard Manet's “In the Winter Garden” from Berlin's Staatliche Museen to a special bunker constructed deep inside a salt mine in the central German town of Merkers is particularly fascinating because it paints a vivid picture of the immense value that art was held—just imagine the battalions of soldiers and the logistics involved to build that secret underground lair, not to mention moving them, to protect the Third Reich's cultural treasures!—a supersized allocation of manpower and resources that continues to resonate in today's blockbuster museum exhibitions, international art fairs, and our own auctions. The salt mines were selected as the ideal location for safekeeping because they provided, as Susan Stamberg wrote, "perfect protection." It wasn't just because they were located deep inside mountains to protect them from air bombing raids, but also and more importantly because they provided the artworks "steady temperature, consistent humidity!"
Central to "Paintings, Politics, and the Monuments Men" is the care with which the Nazis treated art—those they owned, as well as those that they stole. Some were put right next to the country's gold reserve. "That's how valuable they were felt to be."
The COVID-19 pandemic, in my view from the auction rostrum, is as close an experience as any we have today to the chaos and uncertainty wrought upon global society by the Second World War. I believe that the continued strong movement of the art market, pointing to an ever-increasing rise of its value and importance, is based solidly on society's enduring belief that cultural value translates to certainty. To put it more succinctly, our civilization is based on the vestiges of our artistic patrimony. Take that away and we don't just have nothing—we are nothing.
So rest assured in collecting and protecting art. History and "The Monuments Men" are on our side.
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