Nazi confiscated art

This thesis is the administrative history of the Art Looting Investigation Unit's (ALIU), which in November 1944 was established to gather intelligence information regarding Nazi art looting and the movement of looted assets and properties in Europe.  I focus primarily on the ALIU’s memoranda and reports found at the National Archives.  This information includes how the unit led its investigations, and how the unit subsequently recommended the detaining for prosecution of numerous art looting suspects.  Under the auspices of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Counter-intelligence Branch, X-2, the ALIU investigated over 700 individuals suspected of art plundering, leading to the interrogations of 21 prominent German art dealers and art historians.  The ALIU investigations describe Nazi attempts to sell looted art, movement of art into the Reich, purchasing and selling of confiscated art, and names of dealers and agents engaged in acquiring and selling looted art.  The ALIU reports also trace Germany’s economic and financial growth and decline, and the movement of assets within the Reich. The War Crimes Commission used the ALIU reports as prosecution evidence in the Nuremberg Trials of Alfred Rosenberg and Hermann Göring.  I conclude that despite its landmark investigations, the ALIU was ultimately unsuccessful in having the art looting suspects fully prosecuted.

From 1947 to 1949, Evelyn Tucker, a Museum, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFA&A) Representative, worked in U.S. Military Occupied Austria, recovering, investigating, and restituting Nazi plundered Austrian-owned cultural property.  My study of Tucker will explore several themes regarding her involvement in returning stolen loot to Austria, and her influence upon restitution policies during her two years in U.S. Army occupied Austria.