Russian Exhibit of ‘Trophy Art’

Regarding your report on art treasures seized by the Soviets from Germany (“Displaying the Spoils of War,” March 20), please note that many of the recently discovered works of art belonged to Jewish families prior to 1933. The Gestapo usually confiscated a family’s household belongings at the time it sent them to camp. Confiscated paintings, etc. thus became state property or “national treasures.”

Most of the Jewish owners were murdered by the Nazis, and the Gestapo files were burned as the Red Army approached Berlin in 1945. Therefore there are now few heirs who can successfully press claims in a court of law for the items found in the Russian museums. The German federal government thus claims ownership by default. It demands that the Russian government send the “trophy art” to German museums.

I doubt whether, for art items previously owned by Jews, their owners intended to reward Germany for the Holocaust by “donating” their collections to German museums. A more equitable disposition is desirable.

RALPH PERL

Venice

* The Germans feel they have the right of law and treaty to back up their demand for the return of art treasures from Russia, while the Russians--who were the victims of one of the greatest cultural rapes of our times at the hands of the German Nazi government--feel they hold the moral high ground. The pillage of western Russia by German government authorities, officers and common soldiers--including their Spanish allies from the infamous Blue Brigade--was an intentional effort to obliterate Russia’s cultural heritage. Unfortunately, this effort was hugely successful; tens of thousands of cathedrals, palaces, museums and architectural monuments in Russia were wrecked as part of a strategy to wipe the cultural memory from the land.

In the case of Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo, near the city of St. Petersburg, the German army and their Spanish allies looted more than 10,000 objects of art and cultural significance. What was not burned or destroyed by the troops was sent off to Germany and Spain, where it ended up in the homes of army families or found its way to German antique stores and auction houses.

The German government, private collectors and museums who are now demanding the return of art treasures taken to Russia after the war are lucky. Their treasures were generally removed in an organized fashion and now can be easily located and someday returned. Hundreds of thousands of Russian objects looted by the Nazis are now scattered across Western Europe and even, by now, in America. How will Germany and Spain now account for this holocaust of Russian culture?

ROBERT ATCHISON, Chairman

Committee for the Alexander Palace

Austin, Tex.