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 The Monuments Men.
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.