Monuments Men Foundation finds five works of art smuggled out of Germany during second world war
Paintings taken out of Germany during second world war returned after being discovered in US
The family of an American tank commander who won three historic paintings playing poker during the second world war has returned the stolen art treasures to their rightful owners.
Two more paintings acquired by a librarian while serving for the US army in Germany in late 1945 were also handed over during a ceremony at the State Department in Washington after the families had contacted a US foundation that tracks down missing artwork.
"These paintings are just the tip of the iceberg of the hundreds of thousands of paintings and other cultural items still missing," said Robert Edsel, the founder and chairman of the Monuments Men Foundation.
The foundation is named after a US task force of museum directors, curators and educators who protected cultural treasures, portrayed in the movie .
Major William Oftebro of the 750th tank battalion obtained the three paintings while he was responsible for guarding a potassium mine near the city of Dessau in what is today the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Local museum officials had stored their collection underground to save it from Allied bombing raids.
According to the Monuments Men Foundation, Oftebro mailed the artworks by 17th-century Flemish painter Frans Francken III, 18th-century German artist Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich and his Austrian contemporary Franz de Paula Ferg back home, telling his family that he had won them in a poker game.
Years after Oftebro's death, his stepson James Hetherington contacted the Dallas-based Monuments Men Foundation last August after he had learned about their mission through the George Clooney movie, which is based on one of Edsel's books.
Edsel used the Hollywood fame to establish what he calls "America's most wanted for culture", a toll-free tip line for missing artworks from the second world war, which in many cases crossed the Atlantic illegally.
The second discovery presented on Tuesday, which involves a painting of Britain's Queen Victoria and her eldest daughter, and a painting of Charles I of England, was also made possible by the hotline.
According to the Monuments Men Foundation, both paintings had been at Castle Friedrichshof just north of Frankfurt, which in April 1945 was confiscated by American forces and converted into an officers' club.
They ended up in the hands of Margaret Reeb, a librarian for the United States Special Services.
"We don't know who she acquired them from or what she paid for them. But she ended up with them and brought them back to America, and they have been in a safety deposit box ever since," Reeb's nephew Randy Holland said.
