Art appropriation
Looting of artworks existed long before the current cultural appropriation movement.
Napoleon was probably the biggest looter in history.
Still under 30 when he conquered Italy, he never actually occupied Venice but one of of his art commissars drew up an inventory of art works to hand over – including the Wedding Feast at Cana by Veronese which still resides in the Louvre.
Napoleon ‘s brother Joseph was an unpopular King of Spain. His royal carriage was attacked by Wellington’s soldiers when he fled Spain with a hoard of art.
One item was The Rokeby Venus (above) by Valezquez which was to be purchased by the Art Fund in 1906 for the National Gallery where it is still to be found.
Although there is a fine collection in Apsley House – the home of the first Duke of Wellington – he offered to return The Rokeby Venus, so-called as, prior to the National Gallery, it was in Rokeby Hall (and other art works taken from Spain) – but King Ferdinand wanted him to keep them for winning the Peninsula War .
Another serial looter was Hermann Goering.
Adolf Hitler wanted to found a museum of art in his native Linz and there was something of a clash between him and his number two in the Reich as to who would get his hands on the artworks, many of which had been confiscated.
This was to present a problem when the niece of Adèle Bauer Bloch recovered, by court process, a picture by Gustav Klimt once confiscated by the Nazis from the Belvedere museum in Vienna.
Unless provenance can be shown for the relevant years of Nazi rule, dealers now (though not in the past) are reluctant to deal in a picture.
Britain is no stranger to the controversy of art appropriation with the Elgin Marbles and Benin Bronzes. Lord Leighton and Emma Hamilton’s husband William – the envoy and consul in Naples – would help themselves to everything, creating the current problem.
Britain might well have ruled the waves, but that they did do so owed much to the quality of sea captains who were attracted to their post by the booty to be had.
