GERMANY: FORMER U.S. OFFICER RECEIVES MEDAL FOR RESISTING U.S. CONFISCATION OF PAINTINGS AFTER WORLD WAR II

Record ID: 230422

  • Title: GERMANY: FORMER U.S. OFFICER RECEIVES MEDAL FOR RESISTING U.S. CONFISCATION OF PAINTINGS AFTER WORLD WAR II
  • Date: 8th February 1996
  • Summary: BONN, BERLIN AND WIESBADEN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 8 AND 9 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) BONN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 9, 1996) 1. LV INTERIOR - KINKEL AT MEDAL AWARD CEREMONY 0.05 2. SV GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER KLAUS KINKEL SAYING "AMERICANS LIKE YOURSELF LAY THE FOUNDATION FOR FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN OUR PEOPLES FOLLOWING THE DISASTER OF WORLD WAR TWO. TODAY DEMOCRATIC GERMANY THANKS YOU." (GERMAN) 0.16 3. CUTAWAY OF MEDIA 0.22 4. SV KINKEL HANDING OVER COMMANDER'S CROSS OF THE ORDER OF MERIT TO AMERICAN WALTER FARMER 0.43 5. LV/SV FARMER BEING CONGRATULATED AFTER CEREMONY (2 SHOTS) 0.55 BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 9, 1996) 6. LV EXTERIOR OF MUSEUM 1.00 7. WIDE INTERIOR 1.05 8. SV PAINTING BY UNKNOWN PAINTER CALLED A "THRONENDE MARIA MIT DEM KIND' (MARIA WITH CHILD) DATED 1340 1.18 9. SV PAINTING KONRAD WITZ "RATSCHLUSS DER ERLOESUNG" (DECISION OF DELIVERANCE) DATED 1444 AND PAINTING BY UNKNOWN PAINTER THE HOLY TRINITY DATED 1450 1.33 10.SV PAINTING BY SANDRO BOTTICELLI CALLED "MARIA WITH CHILD" AND "SINGING ANGEL" DATED 1477 (2 SHOTS) 1.39 11.SV/CU SELF PORTRAIT BY TITIAN (2 SHOTS) 1.47 12.SV TWO TITIAN PAINTINGS: DAUGHTER LAVINIA, DATED 1555 AND VENUS WITH ORGANPLAYER, DATED 1550 1.52 13.WIDE VIEW INTERIOR 1.55 14.SV/CU PAINTING BY LUCAS CRANACH CALLED QUIET ON THE FLIGHT TO EGYPT, DATED 1574 (2 SHOTS) 2.06 WIESBADEN, GERMANY (FEBURARY 8, 1996) 15.SV POSTER OF WIESBADEN MUSEUM WHICH READS 'ZURUECKGEKEHRTE MEISTERWERKE (RETURNED WORKS OF ART) / MEDIA CONFERENCE 2.14 16.SV FARMER LOOKING AT OLD PHOTO OF PAINTINGS (2 SHOTS) 2.23 17.SV WALTER FARMER SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 2.47 18.SV MEDIA CONFERENCE 2.51 19.SV FARMER WALKING AROUND MUSEUM 2.56 SEQUENCE 17 TRANSCRIPT: FARMER: "I CAN'T IMAGINE A PLEASURE MORE EXQUISITE THAN BEING HERE IN THIS BUILDING, WHERE I SPENT ALMOST A YEAR, FIFTY YEARS AGO. IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING MOMENTS OF ONE'S LIFE, WHEN YOU COULD DO SOMETHING FOR SOMEBODY ELSE. YOUR EFFORTS COULD SAVE SOMETHING FOR ANOTHER GENERATION." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 23rd February 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BONN, BERLIN AND WIESBADEN, GERMANY
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA3P2BVJXJC7B505072UQGRQK5W
  • Story Text: A former United States (U.S.) army officer who took a stand against Washington's confiscation of valuable paintings from Germany after World War Two was honoured by a grateful Bonn on Friday (February 9).

    Walter Farmer, now 85 and living in Cincinnati, Ohio, received the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit from Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel for challenging his superiors' decision to ship 202 priceless art works to the United States.

    The former captain's bold stance eventually prompted Washington to return the paintings, which included works by Botticelli, Rembrandt and Rubens, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

    "Mr Farmer set a noble example for personal courage and civic responsibility by standing up for German culture," the ministry said in a statement, praising him for respecting a vanquished enemy in its moment of greatest vulnerability.

    Farmer, who served in the Army Corps of Engineers, was part of a unit in charge of finding and safeguarding works of art that Nazis had acquired legally or illegally and hidden away but that fell into Allied hands.

    The army ordered the unit to send 202 paintings back to the United States as potential war reparations, triggering a protest initiated by Farmer and signed by other curators.

    "We are unanimously agreed that the transportation of those works of art, undertaken by the United States Army, upon direction from the highest national authority, establishes a precedent which is neither morally tenable nor trustworthy," he wrote in November 1945.

    Farmer visited the Wiesbaden Museum on Thursday where the returned works of art were on view.


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