Art: Treasure Returned

"We are glad that the forces of the heroic Soviet army saved these invaluable treasures from ruin," trumpeted Soviet Deputy Minister of Culture Kaftanov at a full-dress ceremony in Moscow's Pushkin Museum last fortnight. In reply, East German Foreign Minister Lothar Bolz oozed gratitude. And well he might. In an unprecedented gesture of turnabout, the Soviets had decided to hand back a portion of one of the richest cargoes of loot picked up in World War II: Dresden's famed $17 million collection of masterpieces, including 24 Van Dycks, 34 important paintings by Rembrandt and Rubens, paintings by Tintoretto, Velasquez, Vermeer, Poussin,...

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