Germany Honors G.I. Who Fought Art Looting
By ALAN COWELL
Published: February 11, 1996
BONN, Feb. 10— The war was over, and to the victors the spoils.
By the truck and trainload, Soviet troops plundered Nazi Germany's vast stockpile of art, some of it looted in invasions of other countries. Americans eyed works that today would be beyond price, and shipped them to the United States.
Then, a 34-year-old American captain quite simply said, No.
Specifically, Capt. Walter Farmer protested the decision to ship to the United States 202 artworks, including paintings by Botticelli, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Watteau and Rubens, that he felt belonged to Germany and should not be looted and taken from it even in a war that was started by the Nazis.
President Truman eventually agreed, and three years later the paintings were back in Germany.
On Friday, Germany rewarded the former Army Corps of Engineers captain, presenting him with its highest civilian medal for private individuals. The ceremony had a powerful undercurrent for the Germans: if the United States could acknowledge Germany's claim to its artworks 50 years ago, why should Russia retain the treasures its soldiers took from Germany?
"Germany has returned all the foreign-owned art treasures that were found here," Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said in an reference to the Nazi pillage of European art.
"We would like to clear up matters in this same way with Russia," Mr. Kinkel said, referring to the countless books, documents, archives, artworks and archaeological treasures still in Russian hands.
"As an exceptional, cultural nation, Russia has given the world immeasurable cultural gifts in music, literature and painting," Mr. Kinkel said as he presented Mr. Farmer with the crimson Commander's Cross of the Federal Order of Merit. "It would be commensurate with this high standing if Russia were to return the treasures of world culture to their places of origin."
For Mr. Farmer, an architect and interior designer, there was a more immediate matter to attend to: In Wiesbaden, when he was deploying tanks and secret policemen to guard the artworks, he never got around to seeing them. They had been hidden in a mine shaft, and, he said, "they were brought in still crated so I never saw them."
Next week, when he travels to Berlin, he'll see them for the first time.
Mr. Farmer, now 84, is one of the few American survivors of the Commission for the Preservation of Works of Art of International Importance in War-Torn Areas, where his job was to oversee the collection and safekeeping of art at a time when the temptation among some victors, including Americans, was simply to loot.
Indeed, as a counterpoint to Mr. Farmer, the activities of another American, Lieut. Joe Tom Meador, have become a cause celebre in the American art world.
Lieutenant Meador stole the world-renowned Quedlinburg treasures in 1945, mailing them home to Whitewright, Texas. The treasures include the Samuhel Gospels -- a 9th-century biblical manuscript emblazoned with gold, silver and jewels -- as well as other priceless, decorated manuscripts and religious items.
After Lieutenant Meador's death, his brother and sister sold the treasures back to the German authorities for $2.75 million, causing an outrage among Americans incensed by this trade in looted art.
The brother and sister, Jack Meador and Jane Meador Cook, are scheduled to go on trial in Texas on April 1, accused of conspiring to sell stolen property.
Mr. Farmer courted no such ignominy.
"I was plain angry," he said in an interview Friday, referring to his reaction to his superiors' order that the 202 paintings in his custody be sent back to the United States.
So, Mr. Farmer and 35 others in charge of art collection points in Wiesbaden gathered to draw up what has become known as the Wiesbaden Manifesto on Nov. 7, 1945.
It proclaimed, "We wish to state that, from our own knowledge, no historical grievance will rankle so long or be the cause of so much justified bitterness as the removal for any reason of a part of the heritage of any nation even if that heritage may be interpreted as a prize of war."
With the protest lodged, the artworks were shipped to the United States, and Mr. Farmer returned to civilian life.
But the Wiesbaden Manifesto continued to play into a heated public debate in the United States over the legitimacy of wartime booty.
And in 1948, President Truman ordered that the paintings be returned to Germany.
After that, Mr. Farmer said, "nobody was interested, and that was the end of the issue" until he told his story at a symposium in New York last year.
At that point, German officials took up the case again and decided to honor Mr. Farmer.