One of the most important collections of Medieval church artefacts is known as The Guelph Treasure and is in the possession of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK).
Consisting of 44 fabulous pieces of church art created in gold and silver, set with mother-of-pearl, quartz and ivory it includes reliquaries, crosses, images of saints, chalices and much more and is valued at many hundreds of millions of euros.
Currently on display at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, it was, for decades, considered to have been a genuine purchase by the Prussian State from a consortium of Jewish art dealers in Frankfurt during the time of Nazi rule.
Fabulous Medieval treasure held in Germany may have been looted by Nazis claim descendants of those who sold it
Understandably, there have been rumours that this remarkable treasure was not sold willingly, but was effectively looted or sold at a ‘special low price’ but in 2015, the Advisory Commission on the return of cultural property seized by the Nazis found no evidence to suggest that this was more than a simple sale by the consortium of dealers.
Descendants of those involved in the sale still tried to claim that the items were actually looted but a law suit brought by them in the US Courts in 2023 was dismissed.
New evidence suggests that fabulous Medieval treasure held in Germany may have been looted by Nazis
Further investigation by those claiming the items has uncovered documents which suggest that the sale of the Guelph Treasure was not as voluntary as previously assumed and that effectively the items were sold at a relatively low value in order to allow at least one owner (and probably more) to obtain documents which would allow them to flee Nazi Germany.
Indeed, one of them, Alice Koch who owned around 11 of the items was paid a reasonable sum but then had to surrender it back as a ‘Reich Flight Tax’ which meant that she was able to leave Germany four days later.
This information appears to give some reinforcement to the claim that the Guelph Treasure was effectively looted under Nazi rule, although surprisingly considering the German regret for those days, there is no restitution law in Germany but the SPK has indicated that it would be prepared to allow the matter of ownership to be investigated once again.
