Catalogue description Correspondence between R Fenton and E Clay providing information on the arrival in...

Correspondence between R Fenton and E Clay providing information on the arrival in December 1944 at the Free Port of Bilbao of a painting described as 'a watercolour painting, without frame, signed F Demoulines, [...] representing a full length portrait apparently of the last Czarina of Russia' and on the commercial activities of the Galerie Fischer in Lucerne and its relations with Hofer, Goering's main agent, dated January-February 1945. Includes a letter dated December 1944 from the British Legation of the Commercial Secretariat in Berne to the Black List Section of the Ministry of Economic Warfare providing a list of looted works of art received by Fischer from Hofer as payment for German and Dutch masters sold by Fischer in the summer of 1942. Records that Fischer 'claims to be a specialist in antiques and tapestries and maintains [we cannot help thinking somewhat naively] that it was not until Nathan [an art expert from St. Gall, who came to view the pictures as expert adviser to Buehrle] opened his eyes to their value and antecedents that he realised that he was handling looted art'. Comprises a list supplied by Fischer of around 40 pictures and drawings still at his gallery in Lucerne, including works by Corot, Degas, Renoir, Seurat, Sisley, Van Gogh, Courbet, Monet and Rousseau.

Letter from R Fenton to E Clay dated January 1945 enclosing a microfilm copy of a June 1943 letter [in French] from L Gouy in Geneva to Paul Rosenberg in New York about the fate of Rosenberg's 162 paintings, with enclosures including correspondence with the Banque Nationale de Credit Industriel et Commercial, Roganeau's detailed estimate of the Rosenberg paintings with their size and value [see also T 209/25] and two photographs of the letter addressed to Paul Rosenberg and stamped as opened by Nazi censors in July 1943.

Further correspondence between R Fenton and Miss Clay forwarding a copy of Fenton's letter to Mr Howgate at the Trading with the Enemy Department about a painting of Salome by Titian which appeared to have been looted during the war, smuggled from Portugal to the UK and deposited in the Foreign Branch of the Westminster Bank at Lothbury in the account of Margarita Eisen Cifka Duarte, dated January-February 1945. Includes Fenton's subsequent letter stating that 'we appear to have chased a red herring' as the Westminster Bank had informed the Trading with the Enemy Department that 'one large flat case [...] was deposited with them before the war'.

Further correspondence between Fenton and Clay enclosing a copy of a telegram [in French] to Paris from Maurice Rothschild in Toronto on the fate of his works of art and other material 'which he believes may have been stolen by the Germans in France', dated December 1944-January 1945. Also includes a copy of a letter [in French] from the British to the Belgian Consul General in Zurich informing him of the transfer to the Austrian salt mines of the van Dyck altarpiece, looted by the Germans from the Ghent Cathedral, dated November 1944.

Correspondence between Edith Clay and T H Clark at the Economic Warfare Department of the Foreign Office exchanging information on 'certain paintings held in Switzerland belonging to Adolf Arnhold and Hans Arnhold' which were suspected to have been looted and ten paintings [with catalogue and photographs included] by Corot, Daubigny, Greuze, Courbet, Gauguin and Signac which 'were on exhibit in Madrid under the auspices of the German Embassy' and later identified by the Macmillan Committee as not being looted works of art, dated March 1946.

Includes subsequent correspondence between Miss Clay, Professor Sumner-Crosby of the Roberts Commission and the Ministry for Economic Warfare requesting advice on whether to confirm the validity of the applications for export passes made for the ten aforementioned paintings, dated April 1945. Permission was granted only for the Signac and Gauguin paintings owned by Hans Arnhold which had reached Switzerland in 1933, whereas the other eight 'did not arrive in Switzerland until July, 1940, and it is therefore possible that they do fall into the category of looted property. At the present moment, the files in London do not contain any specific data on these particular paintings. It is recommended, nevertheless, as a matter of principle, that they be held for another six [6] months at least, or until the owner can produce sufficient evidence to prove that they cannot be considered as loot'.

Correspondence between Miss Clay, the Roberts Commission, the American Embassy and Denys Sutton of the Vaucher Commission regarding a painting of St Rochus by Rubens held in Stockholm thought to be loot and later classified as either 'a straightforward sale of the picture from Germany to Sweden' or simply a case of 'safehaven', dated June 1945.