On "Safeguarding" the Monastery of Santa Maria de Ovila (in San Francisco)

On the notion that the public city-owned art given away to a private group
(not owned by the museum in question in this case as alleged), in this
case a deconstructed monastery, was given to the Catholic group to protect
the monastery somehow, to "restore it" or "safeguard" it, I would like to
reflect Lynn Nicholas' fine example of the safeguarding of art in "The
Rape of Europa." Institutionalized art theft in the name of "safeguarding"
is an old craft. The Nazis, and later the Soviets, took it to new lows
from 1933-1945. As a good example, this quote from that book. (I hope this
qualifies as fair use. It is a very short snippet from a very long book.
Brackets are mine to provide clarity-WB) "SS Operatives, who had been in
charge of "safeguarding" procedures since mid-September [1939], did not
appreciate the appearance of this agency [the Central Trustees Office
East, put in charge of stolen art for Himmler, Hitler and Goerring] and
wrote furious letters to headquarters urging that objects of interest to
the SS be immediately shipped to their own storage places in Germany. But
on November 10 Himmler sent a long memo to all agencies ordering them to
cooperate with Muhlmann [the CTOE head]. The SS obeyed, but made constant
efforts to monopolize the confiscation of valuables all through the rest
of the occupations. These attempts were quashed at regular intervals by
reissuance of Himmler's decree and by sharp reminders by such luminaries
as Rudolf Hess and Bormann of Hitler and Goering's exclusive rights to all
"safeguarded" objects [of art and antiquity]." The Rape of Europa, The
Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War, by
Lynn H. Nicholas, Vintage Press, New York, 1994.

Anyone interested in the subject of art and pedigree should read this
"Rape of Europa." Besides being one of the best "who-done-its" I've ever
read, it talks about one man that fought to get his art back from the
Nazis and their inheritors all his life, and through his offspring in the
next generation. It is a powerful story. Eventually I believe he recovered
all but one piece of twenty-seven, as I remember. Even the more noble
Americans got a little caught up in all this "lost and pilfered" treasure,
though the US museum community screamed so loud it soon stopped. The first
blockbuster show at the National Gallery was, you guessed it, stolen art
"safeguarded" from Berlin in the Allies' advance into that city, provided
to the museum by the US military. After great public attendance and an
equally great museum community protest, the art was sent back overseas to
be returned to its proper owners.

This is an extreme example, but an important lesson. If it isn't yours, my
father always told me, you have no business touching it. Leave it be and
go buy your own.

Walter Biller
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The San Francisco Almanac
Knights of the Spanish Abbey