SALT MINES AND CASTLES [Illustration: The Special Evacuation Team. Lieutenants Kovalyak, Moore and Howe, who removed the Göring Collection from Berchtesgaden to Munich, were photographed in the Luftwaffe Rest House at Unterstein.] [Illustration: Hermann Göring, his daughter Edda, Frau Göring and Adolf Hitler. This photograph was taken at Karinhall, the Reichmarschall’s estate near Berlin.] Salt Mines AND Castles The Discovery and Restitution of Looted European Art _By_ THOMAS CARR HOWE, JR. THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY _PUBLISHERS_ _INDIANAPOLIS_ · _NEW YORK_ COPYRIGHT, 1946, BY THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA _First Edition_ TO MY MOTHER NOTE From May 1945 until February 1946, I served as a Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Officer in Germany. During the first four months of this assignment, I was engaged in field work which included the recovery of looted works of art from such out-of-the-way places as a monastery in Czechoslovakia, a salt mine in Austria, and a castle in Bavaria. Later, as Deputy Chief of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section, Office of Military Government, U. S. Zone, I participated in the restitution of recovered art treasures to the countries of rightful ownership. This book is primarily an account of my own experiences in connection with these absorbing tasks; but I have also chronicled the activities of a number of my fellow officers, hoping thereby to provide the reader with a more comprehensive estimate of the work as a whole than the _resumé_ of my own duties could have afforded. For many helpful suggestions, I am indebted to Captain Edith A. Standen, Lieutenant Lamont Moore and Mr. David Bramble; and for invaluable photographic material, I am particularly grateful to Captain Stephen Kovalyak, Captain P. J. Kelleher, Captain Edward E. Adams and Lieutenant Craig Smyth, USNR. For permission to reproduce three _International News Service_ photographs, I wish to thank Mr. Clarence Lindner of the San Francisco _Examiner_. THOMAS CARR HOWE, JR. San Francisco July 1946. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE 1 PARIS—LONDON—VERSAILLES 13 2 ASSIGNED TO FRANKFURT 35 3 MUNICH AND THE BEGINNING OF FIELD WORK 54 4 MASTERPIECES IN A MONASTERY 80 5 SECOND TRIP TO HOHENFURTH 104 6 LOOT UNDERGROUND: THE SALT MINE AT ALT AUSSEE 130