Napoleon, Hitler, The Vatican: Collectors All

[Originally appeared in the Jerusalem Post] 

We have all been collectors at one time or another. Whether it was baseball cards, dolls, stamps, coins, art, etc. It felt nice to complete a set or obtain a rare item. Collecting gave us selective trivia knowledge to impress others. It also made us feel good to display, share, and inform friends and strangers alike.

Our collections were built slowly over time, by buying or trading. Sometimes we might get a gift or inheritance that would start or greatly increase our collection. In some cases, we could build our collections by being explorers, archeologists, or seekers at garage sales, flea markets, or secondhand stores.

In every collection, each item would have a story and provenance. Provenance as the chronology of ownership, custody or location of a historical object is of utmost importance when discussing valuable items.

For museums and the art trade, in addition to helping establish the authorship and authenticity of an object, provenance has become increasingly important in establishing the moral and legal validity of a chain of custody. This is most relevant when it comes to “looted” art, artifacts, manuscripts, or anything of historical, cultural, religious, or monetary value.

Let’s examine three of the most famous, or infamous, collectors in history: Napoleon, Hitler, and the Vatican.

Napoleon. Napoleon reigned as Emperor from 1804-15. According to The New York Times (9 June 2021) “When Napoleon Bonaparte led his army across the Alps, he ordered the Italian states he conquered to hand over artworks that were the pride of the peninsula… He brought back enough loot from his conquests to fill what would soon become the Louvre Museum. And his ravenous and methodical art seizures…paved the way for similar French excesses in sub-Saharan Africa a century later. Yet many of those works were returned after Napoleon’s defeat, setting precedents…”

One of his victims was the Vatican itself.

Cynthia Saltzman, the author of “Plunder,” a history of Napoleon’s Italian art thefts, noted in the same New York Times article (see above) that Napoleon “pilfered about 600 paintings and sculptures from Italy alone.” This pales in comparison to Hitler and the Vatican.

Hitler. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in 1934 but their collecting spree did not begin in earnest until the beginning of World War II and lasted until its end on V-E Day (1939-45). The scope of their theft and plunder is only outmatched by their murder, destruction, and inhumanity.

A group of Army conservators known as the Monuments Men worked to recover this art during the waning days of the war. An article in Smithsonian Magazine (7 February 2014) states: “When [George] Stout arrived there [an ancient salt mine at Altausee, high in the Austrian Alps] on May 21, 1945, shortly after hostilities ended, he chronicled the contents based on Nazi records: 6,577 paintings, 2,300 drawings or watercolors, 954 prints, 137 pieces of sculpture, 129 pieces of arms and armor, 79 baskets of objects, 484 cases of objects thought to be archives, 78 pieces of furniture, 122 tapestries, 1,200-1,700 cases apparently books or similar, and 283 cases contents completely unknown.”

The numbers are staggering and the fight to return them to their rightful owners and heirs continues to this day. Here, provenance has played an important role that has resulted in the return or restitution of items to rightful heirs.

The Vatican. Judaica treasures have been of interest to many conquerors throughout two millennia. One of the most recognized lootings took place after Rome destroyed the Second Temple in 70 CE. It was commemorated on the Arch of Titus, where many friezes depict the carrying of these treasures back to Rome.

According to Dr. Michael A. Calvo: “These thefts include Temple candelabra given to Pope Innocent III by Baldwin I after the sacking of Constantinople and the massacre of the Christian Orthodox population; Temple shofars and utensils; garments of the High Priest; the Tzitz (crown); the Nezer (blade); a gold plaque with the words Kodesh le-YHWH (“Dedicated to the Lord”); books of prayer; documents; writings; sacred objects; cultural objects; and many other objets d’art, books and manuscripts that the Vatican and other churches have appropriated and placed in their own storerooms, libraries and museums.” [Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, The Holy See and Israel: The Historic Fight Against the Jews and Their State]

There actually is a book called Hebrew Manuscripts in the Vatican Library, published in 2008 by the Città del Vatano Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticano, that has “over 600 items.” Although this is a 775-page book, it is a mere catalogue of documents with location information and item descriptions. There are no hi-res scans of the documents or even one snapshot. There is no provenance of any acquisition.

The importance to return all of the plundered Judaica objects d’art, texts, and artifacts cannot be over stressed.

From the Jewish perspective, these plundered items are part of the Jewish identity, history, and holy religious practices. Many original Hebraic texts contain insights into Judaism as to how and why it is practiced today. These sacred religious artifacts and objects d’art depict Jewish communal life throughout the ages.

Imagine the reception the returned items would receive in Israel and its worldwide implications. Israel is very experienced in collecting, preserving, displaying, and sharing. All one has to do (for example) is see the Israel Museum’s clear images of the famous the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as how they’ve been shared online for both scholars and the public. The Vatican’s archives do not display their Judaica collection at all.

The Vatican’s support and recognition of Israel has been spotty at best. The modern State of Israel was internationally recognized by the United Nations in 1948, yet the Holy See finally recognized Israel in December of 1993 (note: that was 14 years after the peace treaty with Egypt). The paper by Dr. Calvo (see above), clearly discusses the lack of Vatican support for Israel and the lopsided support for those who want to wipe Israel off the map.

In a speech Pope John Paul II made at a Rome Synagogue (official English text published by the Vatican in The New York Times, 14 April 1986) he said “[Jews] are our dearly beloved brothers, and in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers.” He continued “Jews and Christians are the trustees and witnesses of an ethic marked by the Ten Commandments, in the observance of which man finds his truth and freedom.”

Powerful words and sentiment.

Hasn’t the current pandemic demonstrated how fragile we humans are? Now is the ideal time for the Vatican to put action behind the words of Pope John Paul II. After all, not only is “Do Not Steal” the eighth commandment of what Pope John Paul II says we are both “the trustees and witnesses of,” but also, we are your “dearly beloved elder brothers.” What better way to show this than by returning stolen Jewish treasures to the Jews?

There is precedence: “Pope Paul VI initiated a process of returning relics to the Orthodox Church. In 1965, relics of Saint Titus, which had been taken to Venice in 1669, were returned to Crete. In 2000, Pope John Paul II returned relics of Saint Gregory the Illuminator to the Armenian Orthodox Church. In 2004, relics of Saint Gregory the Theologian and Saint John Chrysostom were returned to Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople. In 2004, the same Pope returned the Madonna of Kazan to the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. Are Jews less entitled to their heritage than others?” [Dr. Michael A. Calvo, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (paper #2,127, 27 August 2021) Jewish News Syndicate, Israel and the Holy See.]

We hope the Vatican does the “Christian thing” and returns what has unfortunately been acquired through plunder to their rightful heirs, the State of Israel, the lawful representative of the worldwide Jewish community.

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