Ewer in the shape of a triton and a nereid, Johannes Hans
Lencker, c.
1620, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Petzolt, German, 1551-1633, Double-Cup, 1596, Detroit Institute Arts
two of Hitler’s top art agents and taken to Munich.
A legal
tussle ensued.
Orsini, who had been Italian ambassador to
Berlin up till the Nazi takeover, hired a German lawyer in
order to try to move at least some of the Gutmann collection
to Italy.
Hitler’s agents resisted and the end result was
that the collection (including the Nautilus) was declared a
German “National Treasure”.
Not only could the Gutmann
“Silbersammlung” not leave Germany but also, perhaps an
unintended consequence, it could not be sold.
The supreme
irony here is that Hitler’s chief-of-staff had been planning to
buy some of the choice artworks for the Fuhrer himself, and
now even he was stymied.
The collection would remain in
storage, just outside Munich, until the end of the war.
On April the 30th, 1945 the U.S.
7th Army entered Munich.
By October Monuments officers had located the Gutmann
collection.
In December it was ordered that the collection
be transferred to the central collecting point for looted art
(housed in the former Nazi administration building).
In early
1946 it was discovered that a few of the most precious objets
d’art from Eugen Gutmann’s original collection were missing:
including the renowned Orpheus Clock and the beautiful 1628
Nautilus Cup.
(For the Orpheus Clock and further information
on the Gutmann family history see literature, Goodman)
After a long and complicated journey the Gutmann family
today is grateful to the Gregory family for enabling a welcome
restitution settlement.
Detail of Underside
60