| Original caption: “A large oil painting of ‘Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden’ is loaded on a truck by American soldiers. The art treasure is being removed from Göring’s cave to the headquarters of the 101st Airborne Division, Seventh United States Army, to be placed on exhibition.” Soldiers of the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Infantry Division, load the oil painting “Sin of Adam and Eve” by Flemish painter Frans Floris de Vriendt (April 17, 1519 – October 1, 1570) and sculptures of Saint George and Madonna and Child into a General Motors Corporation CCKW 2-and-a-half-ton 6-by-6 truck. The artwork was carried by hand, without any protection, out of Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe Hermann Goering’s (January 12, 1893 – October 15, 1946) bunker at Berchtesgaden. 26,000 train cars of artwork from Occupied Europe were eventually stored at Berchtesgaden, valued at 200,000,000 dollars. The paratroopers displayed the art with a sign that read, “Hermann Goering’s Art Collection Through the Courtesy of the 101st Airborne Division.” In mid-May 1945, a much-publicized exhibition opened in Berchtesgaden that put on display Goering’s private collection of art treasures, further exposing the rapaciousness of the Nazi elite. While it was also an opportunity for those who had liberated the art to enjoy it, the exhibition’s presentation and the press surrounding the show encouraged viewers and readers alike to appreciate the art more as loot than for its aesthetics. As was broadly reported, the collection contained paintings, sculptures, tapestries, rugs, and objects made of silver and gold. It was valued in 1945 at 200,000,000 dollars — an astronomical sum when 1 considers, for example, that a 14-story apartment building with a penthouse on Park Avenue in New York City could be had at the time for well below a 1,000,000 dollars. The objects had been acquired for Goering from European collections that had either been looted or sold at “holdup” prices and found in or near Berchtesgaden on railcars, in a house, and in bunkers. In “one of the strangest art exhibitions in history,” the recovered treasures were displayed at the former Bavarian Hotel, “a rustic three-story inn” in the small town of Unterstein, on the southern edge of Berchtesgaden. Although the exhibition was proudly guarded by the American 101st Airborne Division, which claimed the discoveries, security was insufficient, and some of the smaller pictures on display disappeared, exemplifying the growing problem of more serious looting by American soldiers. Among the artists represented in this makeshift gallery of “tiny, pinewalled rooms” were Rembrandt, Cranach, Rubens, Boucher, Fragonard, Memling, Holbein, van der Weyden, Brueghel, van Dyke, Bellini, Andrea del Sarto, and Renoir. The quality and quantity of the artworks stunned viewers: “In one room alone are two Rembrandts—one of them a hitherto unknown portrait—the Memling Madonna, valued at two hundred and forty thousand dollars, and three Cranachs.” A reporter noted that about a 1,000 paintings were on display, all of which were “originally intended to wind up on the walls of Goering’s mansions.” Richard J. H. Johnston, reporting from Berchtesgaden for the New York Times, said the exhibition “proved that Hermann Goering is either one of the wealthiest men in the world or one of the most discriminating thieves in history.” The show was a blockbuster: “Scores of tourist American soldiers and officers threaded their way through the art objects and the maze of ‘positively no smoking’ signs.” Captain Harry Anderson, an art historian serving with the 101st Airborne, who had been put in charge of locating and securing the safety of the Goering collection, had conceived the idea for the show. Despite the cramped conditions and security problems, the exhibition was not without its professional touches, including a guide who “patiently lectured to those interested in learning what they were looking at. He was Walter Andreas Hofer, Goering’s chief curator.” Hofer, who had also been Goering’s chief purchasing agent and was thus deeply involved in the ransacking of European collections, insisted that everything had been properly purchased and that he was not a Nazi. This claim prompted knowing smirks from the GIs listening to his tour. In remarks widely reported by the press, Hofer boasted of having successfully competed against Hitler’s art agents to acquire the most desirable masterpieces, thus implicating the Führer in the looting. Moreover, “damning evidence of [art] larceny on a stupendous scale” involving Goering and Hitler had been found in the Bavarian Neuschwanstein Castle in mid-May 1945, and further evidence of Hitler’s involvement had turned up among his personal effects at the Berghof: 12 albums of looted artworks with indications that “he had been thumbing through the volumes, perhaps to select some for his mountain hide-out.” As 1 reporter sarcastically commented on the voracious art-collecting activities of the top Nazis, “They were all gentlemen of culture.” The British were less sanguine. British Movietone News openly questioned if Goering had pornographic interests guiding his art collecting, and concluded that he eschewed the quality of the art for its monetary value. Goering’s art collection was moved to Munich, and eventually, whenever possible, returned to its original owner. Frans Floris de Vriendt’s “Sin of Adam and Eve” returned to the Gallerie degli Uffizi in 1953. Currently, it is displayed with a large version of this photo. Photographer William Vandivert (August 16, 1912 – December 1, 1989) photographed the Bengal Famine in 1943; was present at the aftermath of the Gardelegen massacre; 1 of the 1st into Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reichchancellor”) Adolf Hitler’s (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) bunker. He was 1 of the founders of Ma gnum Photos. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0899.jpg |
| Image Size | 353.43 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1211 x 1280 |
| Photographer | William Vandivert |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | May 1, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Berchtesgaden |
| State or Province | Bavaria |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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