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Prologue: Kaffee und Kuchen with Bruno

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Goering's Man in Paris
This chapter is in the book Goering's Man in Paris
1PrOlOGueKaffee und Kuchen with BrunoIt was June 1998 and Dr. Bruno Lohse and I had agreed to meet in front of Munich’s Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (Central Institute for Art History)—appropriately enough, a monumental Nazi building that had also served as an Allied Central Collecting Point—a kind of depot and clearinghouse for displaced artworks—from 1945 to 1950. I had written to Lohse in May asking to interview him for the book I was writing about the complicity of art experts in Nazi plundering (The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany, published in 2000). Bruno Lohse had been Göring’s art agent in Paris during the war, and in 1943 he became the deputy director of the Paris branch of the Special Task Force of Reich Leader Rosenberg, the Nazi art-plundering agency other-wise known as the ERR (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg). Lohse had responded to my letter informing me that while he had little information of use to offer, he was happy to meet for lunch in Munich. The reasons he agreed to meet were complex—as was Lohse—but at the heart of the matter was an inextinguishable self-importance deriving from his years as the self-proclaimed “king of Paris.” He cared deeply about the way he was treated in historical accounts and wrote letters to authors and pub-lishers over the years, including to Metropolitan Museum of Art director (and former Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives officer) James Rorimer, after the latter released his memoir Survival in 1950. Lohse later penned a missive to Paul List, the German publisher of David Roxan and Kenneth
© Yale University Press, New Haven

1PrOlOGueKaffee und Kuchen with BrunoIt was June 1998 and Dr. Bruno Lohse and I had agreed to meet in front of Munich’s Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (Central Institute for Art History)—appropriately enough, a monumental Nazi building that had also served as an Allied Central Collecting Point—a kind of depot and clearinghouse for displaced artworks—from 1945 to 1950. I had written to Lohse in May asking to interview him for the book I was writing about the complicity of art experts in Nazi plundering (The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany, published in 2000). Bruno Lohse had been Göring’s art agent in Paris during the war, and in 1943 he became the deputy director of the Paris branch of the Special Task Force of Reich Leader Rosenberg, the Nazi art-plundering agency other-wise known as the ERR (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg). Lohse had responded to my letter informing me that while he had little information of use to offer, he was happy to meet for lunch in Munich. The reasons he agreed to meet were complex—as was Lohse—but at the heart of the matter was an inextinguishable self-importance deriving from his years as the self-proclaimed “king of Paris.” He cared deeply about the way he was treated in historical accounts and wrote letters to authors and pub-lishers over the years, including to Metropolitan Museum of Art director (and former Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives officer) James Rorimer, after the latter released his memoir Survival in 1950. Lohse later penned a missive to Paul List, the German publisher of David Roxan and Kenneth
© Yale University Press, New Haven

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents ix
  3. Dramatis Personae xi
  4. Prologue: Kaffee und Kuchen with Bruno 1
  5. Introduction 12
  6. 1. Art Historian, Art Dealer, Member of the SS (1911–41) 23
  7. 2. The “King of Paris” (1941–43) 33
  8. 3. Darker Hues and War’s End (1943–45) 83
  9. 4. Called to Account (1945–50) 107
  10. 5. The Amnesia Years 134
  11. 6. Lohse in North America 168
  12. 7. War Stories, War Secrets 191
  13. 8. Restitution 211
  14. 9. Bruno Lohse and the Wildensteins 237
  15. Epilogue: On the Trail of the Nazi Plunderers 276
  16. Appendix: Artworks in the Possession of Dr. Bruno Lohse and the Schönart Anstalt 297
  17. Acknowledgments 299
  18. List of Abbreviations 303
  19. Notes 305
  20. Prologue 305
  21. Index 393
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https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300256215-002

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents ix
  3. Dramatis Personae xi
  4. Prologue: Kaffee und Kuchen with Bruno 1
  5. Introduction 12
  6. 1. Art Historian, Art Dealer, Member of the SS (1911–41) 23
  7. 2. The “King of Paris” (1941–43) 33
  8. 3. Darker Hues and War’s End (1943–45) 83
  9. 4. Called to Account (1945–50) 107
  10. 5. The Amnesia Years 134
  11. 6. Lohse in North America 168
  12. 7. War Stories, War Secrets 191
  13. 8. Restitution 211
  14. 9. Bruno Lohse and the Wildensteins 237
  15. Epilogue: On the Trail of the Nazi Plunderers 276
  16. Appendix: Artworks in the Possession of Dr. Bruno Lohse and the Schönart Anstalt 297
  17. Acknowledgments 299
  18. List of Abbreviations 303
  19. Notes 305
  20. Prologue 305
  21. Index 393
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