U.S. revisiting its post-war decision on Dürer collection from Ukraine (02/21/99)

U.S. revisiting its post-war decision on Dürer collection from Ukraine

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government is reconsidering a decision it made 50 years ago to give a collection of Albrecht Dürer drawings looted by the Nazis from the Stefanyk Library in Lviv to a descendant of the collection's former owner rather than return it to the library.

Addressing a meeting of the Association of Art Museum Directors here on January 30, J.D. Bindenagel, senior coordinator of the Office of the Undersecretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs who served as the director of the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets last November, cited this case as an example of the complexities involved in returning Nazi-looted art to its rightful owners.

"The government of Ukraine claims that, after World War II, the United States apparently turned the drawings over to an individual claimant - Prince Lubomirski - rather than to their country of origin," Mr. Bindenagel told the museum directors. He acknowledged that the "general U.S. government policy at the time was to return Nazi-confiscated art to its country of origin."

The U.S. official noted Ukraine's assertion that the city of Lviv "was the rightful owner of the drawings rather than the prince, because the Lubomirski family had earlier donated the drawings to the city."

Ukrainian government representatives have discussed the issue with State Department officials, most recently during the Holocaust-Era Assets Conference in Washington and the bilateral U.S.-Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Commission meeting two weeks earlier.

The two dozen 16th century drawings by Dürer were part of a collection of art donated by Prince Heinrich Lubomirski in the 1820s to the Ossolinski Institute in Lviv, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city, and the collection, came under Polish occupation between this century's world wars, under Soviet occupation at the beginning of World War II, German occupation during the war, and again a part of Soviet Ukraine at the conclusion of the war.

After the Soviets occupied and united western Ukraine with Soviet Ukraine, in 1940 they reorganized Lviv's numerous libraries, museums and other institutions into the Lviv National Academy of Sciences Library named for the writer Vasyl Stefanyk. Among the more than 80 merged institutions was the Ossolinski Institute with its Dürer drawings.

This collection was confiscated by the Nazis as part of its well-organized art-looting campaign in Europe and, reportedly, presented for Hitler's private collection.

After the war the collection was found near Salzburg and turned over to the appropriate stolen art section of the U.S. military government. The collection was soon claimed by George Lubomirski, a descendant of Prince Heinrich, and turned over to him, despite the policy of returning looted art to its countries of origin. Mr. Lubomirski sold the drawings separately through art dealers in London and New York, and ultimately they became part of a number of leading collections in Germany, England, Canada and the United States, where they can now be found in Chicago, Kansas City, Boston, Cleveland (Museum of Art), Washington (The National Gallery) and New York (The Metropolitan Museum and the Morgan Library).

Ukraine, however, is not the only claimant. The Ossolinski Library in Wroclaw, Poland, has stated that it is the rightful owner of the Dürer drawings.

Mr. Bindenagel said that State Department "considers Ukraine's questions serious ones," and has referred them for further research to the National Archives and the newly appointed Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets.

"The commission's mandate would permit it to research the U.S. government's decision to turn the Dürer drawings over to Prince Lubomirski," he said.

The Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets in November fashioned a set of principles for returning looted art and achieved a consensus of support - albeit non-binding - from the 44 participating governments.

Mr. Bindenagel noted that "one of the major breakthroughs" of the conference, was Russia's agreement to return looted art in its possession, "if the Soviets had taken it from Germany as 'war booty' and the Nazis confiscated it first from victims of Nazism."

"Under Duma law, art taken by the Soviet Army at war's end is considered 'war reparation,'" he said. "However, the Russian government has expressed a willingness to consider claims for such art if it can be established that the Nazis confiscated it from individuals who were victims of Nazi persecution first."

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