Otto Wittmann papers relating to the Art Looting Investigation Unit of the United States Office of Strategic Services 910130
Karen Meyer-Roux
Special Collections
2018
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Otto Wittmann papers relating to the Art Looting Investigation Unit of the United States Office of Strategic Services
Creator:
Wittmann, Otto, 1911-2001
Identifier/Call Number: 910130
Physical Description:
3.75 Linear Feet
(9 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1933-2000, bulk 1945-1946
Abstract: The Otto Wittmann papers relating to the Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU) of the United States Office of Strategic Services
(OSS) consists of reports prepared by the OSS and by other allied agencies, as well as the work that Wittmann undertook during
his employment with the OSS, and files that attest to his career-long interest in the mission of the OSS.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language of Material: Collection material is in English.
Biographical / Historical
Otto Wittmann was born on September 1, 1911, in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of a successful businessman who had found a
niche in the newly developing automobile industry. While Wittmann grew up in Kansas City, attending public and then private
schools, he had little exposure to art. No art museum had been opened yet in Kansas City before Wittmann joined Harvard University
as a freshman in 1929. However, during his years at Harvard from 1929 to 1933, Wittmann attended courses at the Fogg Art Museum
and chose to major in art history. He became acquainted with numerous students of Paul Sachs who would become museum and cultural
leaders, such as Perry T. Rathbone (1911-2000), who became a close friend and later became director of the St. Louis Art Museum
and then of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Graduating in the midst of the Great Depression, Wittmann was unable financially to pursue graduate studies. He took on a
position at the Nelson-Atkins Museum (then known as The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and the Mary Atkins Museum
of Fine Arts) in September 1933 while the museum was still under construction and only three months before it opened to the
public. Working under Director Paul Gardner, Wittmann quickly learned numerous practical aspects of museum work, including
gallery installation; how to crate and uncrate objects, and arrange the vaults; registrarial and curatorial work; how to prepare
educational programs, lectures and booklets; and the care and exhibition of the print collection.
In 1937, when many of his peers from Harvard had completed their graduate studies but could boast of only a theoretical understanding
of a career in the arts, Wittmann, armed with an unusual amount of practical experience, became an assistant to Paul Sachs
at the Fogg Museum. This enabled him to attend Sachs's one-year Museum Course at no cost and to gain skills in connoisseurship
and authentication, as well as to develop relationships with collectors and dealers. He was subsequently appointed curator
of the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York, a position he held until he was drafted into the army in 1941 due to the
outbreak of World War II. Shortly thereafter, placed on reserve, he briefly took on a position as Assistant Director of the
Portland Art Museum before resuming service following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. He joined the
personnel of the Air Transport Command in Washington and then the War Department, rapidly rising through the military ranks
from second lieutenant to major.
On August 3, 1945, Wittmann was transferred to the Art Looting Investigating Unit (ALIU) of the Office of Strategic Services
(OSS) in the War Department, X2 Branch. Unlike the Army's Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives unit (MFAA), which focused on
fieldwork and restitution effort, the ALIU of the OSS--one of the early forms of organized intelligence in the US prior to
the creation of the CIA in 1947--was charged with the gathering, analysis and dissemination of intelligence information related
to art looting during the war. The ALIU consisted of two offices: its headquarters in Washington and an Operations Office
in London. Wittmann was appointed head desk of the office in Washington.
The bulk of the reports on Nazi art looting issued by the ALIU had been prepared in 1945 and 1946 by James Sachs Plaut, the
nephew of Paul Sachs, Theodore Rousseau, and S. Lane Faison. They succeeded in exposing the role of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter
Rosenberg (ERR) in France in helping to build Hermann Goering's art collection as well as the Sonderauftrag Linz. Wittmann
traveled to Europe after the ALIU's final report had been issued in May 1946, which highlighted areas that had been insufficiently
investigated. He was sent by the War Department to Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden and
Germany to conduct investigations from June to September 1946, and to analyze the role played by Hans Adolf Wendland in relation
to the transfer of artworks from France to the Galerie Fischer in Lucerne, Switzerland, which had held auctions of international
standing during the war. In his report on Wendland, Wittmann noted dryly that he wasn't convinced by Wendland's claim that
all of his export papers to travel in and out of countries during the war had been received from German officials for only
"the price of four kilograms of chocolate." He maintained a sense of detachment or moderation and took no position on whether
the United States should have received a trophy in the form of an artwork as compensation for its enormous participation in
the art restitution effort. Wittmann observed that in his case the real trophy of this mission in 1946 was that it allowed
him to develop friendships with European colleagues. This would enable him throughout his career to pull from a network of
art experts for the evaluation of potential acquisitions and to organize extraordinary exhibitions thanks to the rare loans
he could receive from Europe.
In June 1945, Wittmann married Margaret Hill, who would have a profound influence on the development of his career. A graduate
of Radcliffe College, Hill had participated in the archeological digs organized in Greece by the American School of Classical
Studies. Although Hill had not made it on the list of MFAA prepared by Edith Standen, which gathered the names of those that
had assisted with the protection of art during World War II, Hill had also been a member of the OSS. Later she would assist
the institutions that Wittmann worked for in her area of specialization, while also performing important public functions
for them. Shortly after Wittmann's resignation from the OSS on October 6, 1946, the young couple moved to Toledo, where Wittmann
took on the newly created position of assistant director at the Toledo Art Museum. The museum attracted Wittmann for its unusually
ambitious education program--an interest he had developed in Kansas City--and for its community and civic service to the city
of Toledo, a role that his war experience had made him appreciate. The modesty of the museum's collection would become an
opportunity for Wittmann to take an active role in acquisitions, one that he could play with more freedom than his colleagues
at more prestigious institutions on the East Coast could. Although his appointment was planned to be of brief tenure, the
Wittmanns remained in Toledo until 1977, raising a family there and helping propel the museum into one of the most esteemed
collections in the country with the acquisitions of magnificent artworks, such as the
Crowning of Saint Catherine by Rubens, originally thought by another institution to be a later copy.
Wittmann participated in federal initiatives, advocating public funding for art institutions during his tenure as president
of the College Art Association (CAA) and president of the Association of Art Museums (AAM). President Lyndon Johnson appointed
him to the first National Council on the Arts, a precursor to the National Endowment of the Arts, in 1964, and Wittmann served
as advisor for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Upon his retirement from the Toledo Art Museum in 1977, Wittmann moved to Los Angeles shortly after J. Paul Getty passed away.
Wittmann served as a consultant and trustee to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 1977 to 1979. Afterwards he served
at the Getty Museum and then the Getty Trust from 1978 until 1994 in roles including consultant, trustee, acting chief curator,
and chair of the Art Acquisitions Committee, helping build the museum's collections, as he had done in Toledo. Wittmann articulated
a vision for the Getty beyond that of the traditional model of the museum: in 1980, he devised a chart for the organization
that incorporated four programs, each with its own director reporting to the president of the Trust: Museum, Education, Research
(which featured a research art library), and a Foundation. Harold Williams would later on devise another chart for the organization.
Wittmann has been credited with fostering the civic duty of the institution, so that its unusually rich resources would not
isolate it from its sister institutions, and not prevent them from also building collections of their own. Upon his retirement,
he and Margaret Wittmann moved to Montecito near Santa Barbara, where he passed away in 2001.
Sources consulted:
- Sally Anne Duncan.
Otto Wittmann : Museum Man for All Seasons. Toledo, OH : Toledo Museum of Art, 2001.
-
The Museum in the Creation of Community : Otto Wittmann / interviewed by Richard Càndida Smith ; Art History Oral Documentation Project compiled under the auspices of the Getty
Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1995.
- Muchnic, Suzanne. "On the Trails of Spoils of War,"
Los Angeles Times 1995 June 4.
Scope and Contents
The archive, which consists of 3.75 linear feet (9 boxes) of papers, documents the Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU) within
the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the mission played by one of its staff members, Otto Wittmann. The OSS--created
by President Roosevelt in 1942 with the appointment of William J. Donovan as its director--was one of the early forms of organized
intelligence in the United States prior to the establishment of the CIA in 1947. The ALIU was charged with the analysis, gathering
and dissemination of intelligence information and with serving as a liaison with other agencies within the War Department,
the State Department, the Treasury and the Roberts Commission. It became a repository of intelligence information gathered
by numerous agencies on the topic of art looting. The reports prepared by the ALIU exposed the extent of the theft of artworks
from countries invaded by Germany, to help create Hermann Goering's collection as well as the Museum and Library of Hitler
at Linz. The mission of the ALIU was distinct in nature from that of the field work accomplished by the Monuments, Fine Arts,
and Archives unit (MFAA), whose members were part of the US Army and entered Europe during the war with the Allied invasion
with the responsibility of protecting works of art and monuments.
The archive sheds light on how the OSS operated within a larger group of agencies, and helps understand the day-to-day activities
of one of its members during an intelligence mission in Europe. It testifies through a small lens to the steps taken by a
country in developing secret intelligence on an increasingly large scale. The files gathered by Wittmann reveal the difficulties
in communicating such missions to the public, who also viewed the OSS, not without scorn, as the organization of the "Oh So
Social," "Oh Shush Shush" and "Oh So Secret."
The archive partially duplicates records in the National Archives, where the records of the ALIU were deposited. Upon his
return from his mission in Europe in 1946, Wittmann was the last remaining member of the ALIU, with the other members having
returned to their civilian duties, and he was asked by the OSS to close out the ALIU. Wittmann transferred the records of
the Washington headquarters office of the ALIU to Ardelia Hall at the State Department, who had been charged with the art
records there. Upon Hall's retirement from the State Department, the records of the ALIU were transferred to the National
Archives. In 1990-1991, Wittmann took the initiative to order copies of all the reports produced by the ALIU in the National
Archives, which are included in the present archive. The archive also contains copies of reports which appear from their annotations
to have been Wittmann's personal copies, gathered during his employment with the OSS, and includes reports by agencies in
France and England.
A portion unique to the archive are the personal papers of Otto Wittmann related to his employment with the OSS. Notes in
these papers provide an almost daily account of Wittmann's intelligence mission in France, Switzerland, Germany and England.
Included are Wittmann's agendas, meeting notes and drafts for the examination and analysis of the transfer of artworks from
France to Switzerland. Particularly well-documented is Wittmann's analysis of the role in the transfer played by Hans Adolf
Wendland, who developed a business partnership with Theodor Fischer of Lucerne. Included are clippings and publications that
shed light on art looting during the war, and the restitution efforts undertaken by the United States in collaboration with
England, France, Italy, and other countries. The files also attest to the important principle, espoused by Wittmann, that
works of art are not spoils of war.
Arrangement
The archive is arranged in four series:
Series I. Reports related to art looting during World War II, 1944-1950;
Series II. Personal papers, 1933-1997;
Series III. Publications related to art looting during World War II, 1946-1984;
Series IV. Newspaper clippings, 1941-2000.
Related Materials
Records pertaining to Otto Wittmann's work for the Getty have been transferred to the Getty's Institutional Records and Archives
and are currently closed to the public. For more information please contact the Getty Institutional Archives at archives@getty.edu.
Other related materials include the following:
- Otto Wittmann papers, 1932-1996. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
- Oral History Interview with Otto Wittmann, 1976 August 19-20. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
- Oral History Interview with Otto Wittmann, 1981 October 25. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
-
The Museum in the Creation of Community : Otto Wittmann / interviewed by Richard Càndida Smith ; Art History Oral Documentation Project compiled under the auspices of the Getty
Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1995.
- Otto Wittmann, Trustee and Consultant, J. Paul Getty Museum, The J. Paul Getty Trust, 1979-1989 (Consultant until 1994),
An Interview Conducted by Eric Abrahamson, The Prologue Group, September 24, 1999. The J. Paul Getty Trust, ©2000.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Otto Wittmann.
Conditions Governing Access
Existence and Location of Copies
The reports in Box 1 and Box 2 are also available as photocopies. See Box 1. Photocopies.
Processing Information
910130 consists of two acquisitions, one made in 1991, and one made in 2001.
Preferred Citation
Otto Wittmann papers relating to the Art Looting Investigation Unit of the United States Office of Strategic Services, The
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 910130.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa910130
Subjects and Indexing Terms
World War, 1939-1945 -- Art and the war
Art treasures in war -- France
Art treasures in war -- Germany
Reports related to art looting during World War II, Series I.
1944-1950
Physical Description:
1.67 Linear Feet
(4 boxes)
Language of Material:
English.
Arrangement
Series I. Reports related to art looting in Europe during World War II is arranged into two subseries: Series II.A. Reports
of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU); Series I.B. Other reports.
Scope and Contents
The series consists of reports related to art looting that were prepared by the Art Investigation Looting Unit (ALIU) of the
OSS and reports prepared by other allied agencies, including the Commission for the Protection and Restitution of Cultural
Material in London. It appears that the reports were received by Otto Wittmann during his employment at the OSS and also gathered
in 1990-1991, when he placed orders with the National Archives to receive copies of all the reports prepared by the ALIU.
Reports of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU), Series I.A.
1945-1946
Physical Description:
1.25 Linear Feet
(3 boxes)
Scope and Contents
The primary work accomplished by the ALIU of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was to issue twelve Detailed Interrogation
Reports (DIRs), three Consolidation Interrogation Reports (CIRS), and a Final Report, issued in May 1946, all of which are
included in the collection of papers. Several other reports were prepared after Spring 1946, such as an unnumbered DIR on
Hans Wendland, which was produced by Otto Wittmann in collaboration with Bernard Taper of the MFA&A and a report of the mission
that Otto Wittmann accomplished between June and September 1946 in Europe.
To see online these reports and further descriptions of the mission of the ALIU, see the National Archives, where the reports
were deposited, and related descriptions of these reports: https://www.archives.gov/
In particular, see: https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/art/oss-art-looting-investigation-unit-reports.html
Arrangement
Series I.A. Reports of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU) is arranged into four
groupings: Detailed Interrogation Reports (DIRs), Consolidated Interrogation Reports (CIRs), Final report; Other reports.
Detailed Interrogation Reports (DIRs),
1945-1946
Scope and Contents
Included here are DIR nos. 1-7, 9-13, which were issued by the ALIU. A DIR no. 8 on Kajetan Muehlmann's role in the organized
German looting of art of Poland and the Netherlands was also contemplated, but became a US-Dutch collaborative endeavor that
had not issued a report at the time of the ALIU's final report. A DIR no. 14 on Maria Dietrich was planned, but in the end
not issued, with the account of her activities incorporated into CIR no. 4. A DIR no. 15 on Rose Bauer, the secretary of Kajetan
Muehlmann, was contemplated, but ultimately not issued.
Box 3, Folder 1
DIR no. 1: Heinrich Hoffmann,
1945 July 1
Scope and Contents
Author: Theodore Rousseau, Jr. Lieutenant, USNR.
Box 3, Folder 2
DIR no. 2: Ernst Buchner,
1945 July 31
Scope and Contents
Author: Theodore Rousseau, Jr. Lieutenant, USNR.
Box 3, Folder 3
DIR no. 3: Robert Scholz,
1945 August 15
Scope and Contents
Author: J. S. Plaut, Lieutenant, USNR Director.
Box 3, Folder 4
DIR no. 4: Gustav Rochlitz,
1945 August 15
Scope and Contents
Author: J. S. Plaut, Lieutenant, USNR Director.
Box 3, Folder 5
DIR no. 5: Gunther Schiedlausky,
1945 August 15
Scope and Contents
Author: J. S. Plaut, Lieutenant, USNR Director.
Box 3, Folder 6
DIR no. 6: Bruno Lohse,
1945 August 15
Scope and Contents
Author: Theodore Rousseau, Jr. Lieutenant, USNR.
Box 3, Folder 7
DIR no. 7: Gisela Limberger,
1945 September 15
Scope and Contents
Author: Theodore Rousseau, Jr. Lieutenant, USNR.
Box 3, Folder 8
DIR no. 9: Walter Andreas Hofer,
1945 September 15
Scope and Contents
Author: Theodore Rousseau, Jr. Lieutenant, USNR.
Box 3, Folder 9
DIR no. 10: Karl Kress,
1945 August 15
Scope and Contents
Author: J. S. Plaut, Lieutenant, USNR Director.
Box 3, Folder 10
DIR no. 11: Walter Bornheim,
1945 September 15
Scope and Contents
Author: Theodore Rousseau, Jr. Lieutenant, USNR.
Box 3, Folder 11
DIR no. 12: Herman Voss,
1945 September 15
Scope and Contents
Author: S. L. Faison, Jr., Lieutenant, USNR.
Box 3, Folder 12
DIR no. 13: Karl Haberstock,
1946 May 1
Scope and Contents
Author: Theodore Rousseau, Jr. Lt. Comdr., USNR.
Box 3, Folder 14
Report B: Adolf Wuester,
1945
Box 3, Folder 15
Combined Index of Detailed Reports
Scope and Contents
Combined Index of Detailed Reports including Wildenstein (A) and Wuester (B); nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, A, B.
Box 3, Folder 15
Indices
Scope and Contents
Indexes to DIR nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12; Index to Miedl Reports; B (Adolf Wuester)
Consolidated Interrogation Reports (CIRs),
1945
Scope and Contents
Included here are the three CIRs that were issued: CIR no. 1, 2, 4. The ALIU did not compile CIR no. 3 on German methods of
acquisition, due to serious limitations in time and personnel, as stated in the unit's final report.
Box 1, Folder 1-2
CIR no. 1: Activity of the Einsatzstab Rosenberg in France,
1945 August 15
Scope and Contents
Author: J. S. Plaut, Lieutenant, USNR Director.
Box 1, Folder 3-11
CIR no. 2: The Goering Collection,
1945 September 15
Scope and Contents
Author: Theodore Rousseau, Jr. Lieutenant, USNR.
Box 2, Folder 1-2
CIR no. 4: Linz: Hitler's Museum and Library,
1945 December 15
Scope and Contents
Author: S. L. Faison, Jr., Lieutenant, USNR.
Box 2, Folder 7
Supplement
Scope and Contents
Author: S. L. Faison, Jr. Lt., Comdr. USNR.
Other reports,
1945-1946
Scope and Contents
Other reports, including reports prepared by Otto Wittmann and Bernard Taper after the ALIU had issued its final report in
May 1946, are found here.
Box 3, Folder 17
Report on progress of special art loot investigation at Alt Aussee during the period 8-30 June 1945,
1945 June 30
Scope and Contents
Author: James S. Plaut, Lieutenant, USNR.
Box 3, Folder 18
Report: Subject: Hans van Meegeren,
1945 November 8
Box 3, Folder 19
DIR: Hans Wendland,
1946 September 18
Scope and Contents
Authors: Otto Wittmann, Jr. for SSU and Bernard Taper for MFA&A.
Box 3, Folder 20
ALIU: Final mission to Europe (10 June 1946-24 September 1946),
1946 October 14
Scope and Contents
Author: Otto Wittmann, Jr.
Other reports, Series I.B.
1944-1950
Physical Description:
0.42 Linear Feet
(1 box)
Scope and Contents
The archive includes reports prepared by agencies other than the ALIU of the OSS, in the United States, England, and France,
including reports from the Roberts Commission, the Commission for the Protection and Restitution of Cultural Material in London
and the DGER in France.
Arrangement
Series I.B. Other reports is arranged according to the following groupings: United States, England, and France.
United States
Language of Material:
English.
Scope and Contents
The reports are listed in chronological order.
Box 4, Folder 1
Civil Affairs Guide: Field Protection of Objects of Art and Archives,
1944 May 12
Scope and Contents
Report of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas.
Box 4, Folder 2
German Universities. Faculties of Art History,
1944
Scope and Contents
Corrections and additions are from AMG-77, Revised list of German personnel, dated 27 November 1944.
Box 4, Folder 3
Appreciation of Enemy Methods of Looting Works of Art in Occupied Territory,
1945 March 20
Scope and Contents
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force G-5 Division.
Box 4, Folder 4
Collection of German Letters and Memoranda Pertaining to Confiscation of European Art Treasures,
1945 May 19
Scope and Contents
Secured by 1st Lt. James J. Rorimer, G-5 Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Officer, Seventh Army from Dr. Schiedlausky and
Bruno Lohse.
Box 4, Folder 5
Looted Art in Occupied Territories: Neutral Countries and Latin America,
1945 August
Scope and Contents
Revised. Foreign economic administration. Enemy Branch: External Economic Security Staff.
Box 4, Folder 6
Decision of the ERR in answer to the protest of the 26 July 1941 made by the general commission for Jewish questions of the
French government made against the confiscation of art treasures in Jewish possession,
1945 August 9 (1941)
Scope and Contents
Gerhard Utikal, ERR, 3 November 1941; translation by Mrs. R. Phelps, 9 August 1945
Box 4, folder 7
Report of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas,
1946
Box 4, Folder 7
MFA&A address list,
1946
Scope and Contents
Author: Edith Standen; Received: October 1950.
Box 4, Folder 8
Report: Subject: Carl W. Buemming,
1947 January 17
Scope and Contents
Author: Bernard B. Taper, Art Intelligence Officer.
Box 4, Folder 9
Temporary retention in the United States of certain German paintings,
1948 March 4, April 16
Scope and Contents
Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate.
England
Scope and Contents
Included is a report by Douglas Cooper and reports from the Commission for the Protection and Restitution of Cultural Material,
London.
Box 4, Folder 10
Report on the German Kunstschutz In Italy between 1943 and 1945,
1945 June 30
Scope and Contents
Author: Douglas Cooper.
Box 4, Folder 11
List of French valuers, auctioneers and auction firms, based on
Volume II. Kunstpresverzeichnis (1940-1941), Berlin, 1943.
1946 July 16
Box 4, Folder 11
List of French art dealers,
1945 July 16
France
Scope and Contents
Included are reports from the DGER (Direction générale des études et recherches).
Box 4, Folder 12
Liste des membres de l'organisation Rosenberg à travers les pays occupés et en Allemagne à la date du 9 novembre 1943
Box 4, Folder 12
Personnel Linsatzstat Rosenberg
Box 4, Folder 12
Main mise allemande sur les œuvres d'art françaises
Scope and Contents
Ref: 32-1-10/DocVII/RC. Organe de recherches des criminels de guerre: section des études culturelles: bulletin de renseignements.
Box 4, Folder 13
Recueil de documents français et allemands
Scope and Contents
Recueil de documents français et allemands classés chronologiquement concernant la saisie des œuvres d'art et matériel culturel
en général, en contravention avec la convention de La Haye (Article 46).
Personal papers, Series II.
1933-1997
Physical Description:
1.25 Linear Feet
(3 boxes)
Scope and Contents
In the personal files are kept documentation on Otto Wittmann's military draft beginning in 1941, papers related to the work
he performed during his employment in the OSS, which was dismantled and folded into a unit named Strategic Services Unit,
and files that testify to his career-long interest in the mission of the OSS related to art looting in Europe during World
War II. The series includes the Detailed Interrogation Report that Wittmann prepared on Wendland in collaboration with Bernard
Taper of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section (MFA&A); the report on Wittmann's mission in Europe during the summer
of 1946; as well as background material to the reports. The files related to ALIU are in folders labeled ORION, named after
the hunter in Greek mythology, which was the code name for the unit.
Arrangement
Series II. Otto Wittmann personal papers are arranged into two subseries: Series II.A. Personal files related to World War
II; Series II.B. Post-war papers. For further documentation on Otto Wittmann, see his papers held at the Archives of American
Art, Smithsonian. Note: the files for the war years are often labeled Strategic Services Unit, rather than OSS, as this was
the official name of the unit during Wittmann's employment.
Personal files related to World War II, Series II.A.
1933-1946
Physical Description:
0.83 Linear Feet
(2 boxes)
Scope and Contents
Otto Wittmann personal files related to World War II document his military service and the mission in Europe during his employment
in the Stragetic Services Unit.
Arrangement
Series II.A. Papers related to World War II is divided into three groupings: General; Army records; Employment in the Strategic
Services Unit.
Box 5, Folder 2
Address books,
1933-1944, 1939, 1944
Box 5, Folder 4-5
Appointment documents,
1942-1952
Employment in the Strategic Services Unit,
1946
Arrangement
Employment in the Strategic Services Unit is arranged into four groupings: General; Correspondence; Writings; Research files.
Box 5, Folder 8-9
Appointment documents,
1946
Box 5, Folder 13
Travel documentation,
1946
Box 5, Folder 14
Brief dictionary of German intelligence and police terms,
undated
Correspondence,
1946
Scope and Contents
The files include letters sent to and/or received from George Baker, Avery B. Cohan, Harry Conover, A. S. Henraux, Lamont
Moore, James S. Plaut, Paul J. Sachs and the following institutions: Department of State, War Department, Fogg Art Museum,
National Gallery of Art, and diplomatic services in Europe.
Box 5, Folder 21
1946 October-1946 November
Box 6, Folder 1
Typescript,
1946
Scope and Contents
Typescript for article in
Magazine of Art.
Box 6, Folder 2
Detailed Interrogation Report: Hans Wendland,
1946 September 18
Scope and Contents
Authors: Otto Wittmann, Jr. for SSU and Bernard Taper for MFA&A.
Box 6, Folder 3
Art Looting Investigation Unit: Final mission to Europe (10 June 1946-24 September 1946),
1946 October 14
Scope and Contents
Author: Otto Wittmann, Jr.
Box 6, Folder 4-5
Background material to Wendland report,
1946
Post-war papers, Series II.B.
1946-1998
Physical Description:
0.42 Linear Feet
(1 box)
Scope and Contents
The post-war records include correspondence in which Wittmann discusses his war experience, as well as lecture notes and research
files related to the topic of art looting during World War II.
Arrangement
Series II.B. Post-war papers is arranged into five groupings: Correspondence; Lectures; Writings; Research files; Miscellaneous.
Correspondence,
1958-1998
Box 7, Folder 1
Archives of American Art,
1990
Box 7, Folder 2
Erburu, Robert and Paul Gottlieb,
1995
Box 7, Folder 4
Naftali, Timothy,
1997-1998
Scope and Contents
Relates to Oral History Project.
Box 7, Folder 5
National Archives, Washington D.C.,
1990-1991
Scope and Contents
Relates to the declassification of OSS reports.
Box 7, Folder 6
Sawyer, Charles. H.,
1985
Scope and Contents
Charles H. Sawyer letters related to his role in the OSS, with copy of letter from Sawyer to Naftanali, 1985.
Box 7, Folder 7
Smyth, Craig H.,
1990 August 31
Lectures,
1949-1971
Scope and Contents
The files include lectures related to the traveling exhibition
European Masterpieces from Berlin Museums, whose ten-day venue in Toledo attracted over 100,000 visitors, and for which heightened security had to be organized in part
because of the lingering animosity of visitors against Germany.
Box 7, Folder 9
Toledo Chapter, Reserve Officers Association,
1949 March 7
Box 7, Folder 10
Toledo Artists Club,
1949 May 29
Box 7, Folder 11
Aides,
1971 May 3
Scope and Contents
Lecture titled "Art and War."
Box 7, Folder 12
"Spoils of War: Restitution or Trophy?,"
The American Society of the French Legion of Honor Newsletter,
1995
Box 7, Folder 13
"The Getty Center: Its Past, Present & Future,"
The American Society of the French Legion of Honor Newsletter,
1997
Research files,
1945-1997
Box 7, Folder 14
Berlin paintings tour in the United States,
1949-1997
Box 7, Folder 15
Johannes Felbermeyer photographic files, Getty Research Center,
1990, undated
Box 7, Folder 17
Lynn Nicholas files,
1993-1995
Publications related to art looting during World War II, Series III.
1946-1984
Physical Description:
0.27 Linear Feet
(9 folders)
Scope and Contents
The publications are primarily exhibition catalogs that testify to the work done shortly after the war in France, Italy and
the United States to advertise the recovery effort of artwork looted during the war. Also included are articles by James Plaut,
who served as director of the ALIU of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1944-1946.
Arrangement
Series III.B. Publications is arranged into three groupings: Exhibition catalogs; Other publications; Miscellaneous.
Exhibition catalogs,
1945-1984
Scope and Contents
Includes the modest publication of the exhibition catalog for
Les chefs-d'œuvre des collections françaises, an exhibition that Wittmann was able to see and that opened in June at the Orangerie in Paris to display artworks returned
from Germany and that Wittmann was able to see.
Box 8, folder 1
Works of Art in Italy,
1945
Scope and Contents
Works of Art in Italy: Losses and Survivals in the War. Part I. South of Bologna. London. H.M. Stationery Office, 1945.
Box 8, Folder 2
Les chefs-d'œuvre des collections françaises,
1946
Scope and Contents
Les chefs-d'œuvre des collections françaises retrouvés en Allemagne par la Commission de récuperation artistique et les services
alliés
, [exposition, Orangerie des Tuileries, juin-aout 1946].
Box 8, Folder 3
War's Toll of Italian Art,
1947
Scope and Contents
War's Toll of Italian Art. An exhibition sponsored by the American Committee for the Restoration of Italian Monuments, [1947].
Box 8, Folder 3
Paintings Looted from Holland,
1948
Scope and Contents
Paintings Looted from Holland Returned through the Efforts of the United States Armed Forces. Exhibition December 7, 1946-January 1, 1948.
Box 8, Folder 4
Masterpieces on Tour,
1948
Scope and Contents
Masterpieces on Tour: 23 German-owned Paintings. Author: Harry A McBride. Washington, D.C. [National Geographic Society], 1948.
Box 8, Folder 5
Recovered Works of Art,
1984
Scope and Contents
Recovered Works of Art : Dedicated to Rodolfo Siviero, Firenze, Palazzo Vecchio, beginning June 29, 1984, Comune di Firenze, Centro Mostre. [Florence]: Cantini edizioni d'arte,
1984.
Other publications,
1945-1947
Box 8, Folder 6
Matthews, Herbert. "Italian Art under Shellfire,"
May 1945
Box 8, Folder 7
Meiss, Millard. "War's Toll of Italian Art,"
1947
Box 8, Folder 8
Plaut, James S. "Retrieving the Loot: The Story of the Nazi Art Thieving Machine,"
Artnews (August 1946): 15-17.
1946
Box 8, Folder 8
Plaut, James S. "Loot for the Master Race,"
The Atlantic (September 1946): 57-64.
1946
Newspaper clippings, Series IV.
1941-2000
Physical Description:
0.55 Linear Feet
(12 folders, 1 box)
Scope and Contents
Otto Wittmann gathered news accounts related to Goering, Hitler, the Nuremberg trials, and the Office of Stragetic Services
(OSS), as well as post-war discoveries of art looted during World War II. Wittmann indicated that the source of the newspaper
clippings, primarily those from 1945, was the office of OSS in Washington, D.C., while some were gathered in other files of
his.
Arrangement
Arranged in two groupings: Chronology; Topics. For further clippings related to World War II that were gathered by Otto Wittmann,
see Scrapbook in: Otto Wittmann papers, 1932-1996, Archives of American Art, Box 10, Folder 1.
Box 8, Folder 12-15
1945
Scope and Contents
Includes
Time Magazine Special Commemorative Issue (May 14, 1945), XLV: no. 20
Box 9, Folder 2
Henry Hyde: Obituary,
1997
Box 9, Folder 3
Faison Lane: Obituary,
1997
Box 9, Folder 4-5
Muchnic, Suzanne. "On the Trails of Spoils of War,"
Los Angeles Times, 1995 June 4,
1995
Scope and Contents
Biography of Otto Wittmann.
Box 9, Folder 7-12
OSS post-war discoveries,
1993-2000
