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approached them or interviewed them
pages of information and no index.
about the matter.
Asked for information about the
This really struck me because I knew
looted Rothschild collection, the staff
that the Nazis stole important paintings,
brought him four carts, loaded with
and I knew that they stole them in a
boxes, full of files and papers that had
more or less organized way, " he said.
been unused for years. Feliciano would
With a staff of about 60 persons,
spend the first hour looking through a
Nazis took the looted art to the Jeu de
cart, the next seven photocopying, and
Paume, a small museum in Paris, and
take it back to Paris for study.
catalogued the art with the name,
"It was like a puzzle," he said.
number, photo and a description for
There was no reference book, you
each piece. It Nvas a methodical type of were counting on family legends, and
looting never before seen.
families would tell vou that something
'`This inventory is still the best tool
happened, and you would look for
we have today to identify them," he said.
documents that would confirm what
Older collections, like the
they had said. Slowly, you would ger a
Rothschild's, were found almost intact
whole picture of a painting."
soon after the war.
It was the artwork of the more
modern artists that had 'disappeared
— and that's what he found so
intriguing .
Nazi aesthetics rated Germanic art
— Rembrandt, 'Vermeer, Van Eyck,
and all the big painters — as the best.
So the looting started with the classi-
cal collections like the Rochschilds'.
Because Hitler deemed degenerate
art created after the mid - 1800s, starting
with Van Gogh and Gauguin, that art
couldn't be taken into Germany. But
there was still money in it, and Nazis
began smuggling Van Gogh's, Picasso's,
and other works in diplomatic pouches Hector Feliciano
to Switzerland, where art dealers would
trade them for Germanic classics and
Through his efforts, he found
then resell the more modern pieces.
more than 2,000 works in museums
The process meant that looted col-
galleries, auction houses and collec-
lections of modern art were scattered
tor's private homes.
all over the world, he said.
Four paintings have been given
Hitler wanted the Rothschild col-
back since the book was published.
lection very badly and took care of it
Before he wrote the book, there
when he got it. The Allies found it
were no organizations, no reference
whole. But other art collections
books. most of the documents were
became like the laundered money.
still classified. But the issue jumped
Feliciano ran into official resistance at
from relative obscurity last month
many points in his search. At the French
when a Holocaust reparations confer-
National Archives, "they told me that all
ence of 44 countries in Washington,
the documents were classified, and that I
D.C. agreed on the need to check the
could not have access ro them," he said.
wartime history of art collections and
He knew that copies of documents
track down the rightful owners.
could be found in the German and the
With a research fellowship at
United States archives. Realizing this was
Columbia University, and living off
no longer a story he could research on
his writings and lectures, Feliciano
weekends, he quit his job. "It became
keeps doing research for friends or
really too important," he said. He used
families who ask for his help.
money from savings and spent two years
To Feliciano, the subject isn't just
researching and traveling full-time.
about arr.
After gaining the trust of people he
"It's a very broad thing, the banality
interviewed — at first, many thought
of evil," he said. "You had a staff, art
he was a type of treasure hunter look-
historians who are seriously doing
ing for a percentage — he became
their work, creating inventories —
attached ro them. "You sort of say 'I'm
writing reports about the Vermeer,
going to find some paintings for you,
about the Rembrandt, about the Van
I'm going to give you a hand.'"
Eyck that they just stole — and it
On trips to the National Archives in
never went through their mind that
Washington D.C., he faced 13 million
they were doing anything wrong." Li

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