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, by buying or trading. Sometimes we might get a gift or inheritance that would start or greatly increase our collection. Sometimes we’d build our collections by being explorers, archeologists, or seekers at garage sales, flea markets, or secondhand stores.
Each item would have a story and provenance. Provenance – the chronology of ownership, custody or location of a historical object – is of utmost importance when discussing valuable items.
In addition to helping establish the authorship and authenticity of an object, provenance for museums and the art trade has become increasingly important in establishing the moral and legal validity of a chain of custody. Especially when it comes to “looted” art, artifacts, manuscripts, or anything of historical, cultural, religious, or monetary value.
Napoleon, Hitler, and the Vatican were three of the most infamous collectors in history.
Napoleon.
Napoleon was Emperor from 1804-1815. According to The New York Times (June 9) “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.”
Cynthia Saltzman, the author of Plunder, a history of Napoleon’s art thefts, noted in the same Times article 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 collecting spree did not begin in earnest until the beginning of World War II, and lasted until V-E Day (1939-1945). The scope of this theft is only outmatched by their murder, destruction, and inhumanity.
The Monuments Men, Army conservators, worked to recover this art during the waning days of the war. Smithsonian Magazine (February 7, 2014) states: “When [George] Stout arrived there [an ancient salt mine 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. The fight to return it to its rightful owners and heirs continues to this day. Here, provenance has played an important role, resulting in the restitution of items to rightful heirs.
The Vatican.
Judaica treasures have been of interest to many conquerors for two millennia. 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]
The 2008 775-page book, Hebrew Manuscripts in the Vatican Library, from the Città del Vatano Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticano, is a mere catalog of documents with location information and item descriptions of “over 600 items.” There are no hi-resolution scans of the documents or even one snapshot. There is no provenance given of any acquisition.
It is important to return all of the plundered Judaica objects d’art, texts, and artifacts. From the Jewish perspective, these plundered items are part of Jewish identity, history, and holy religious practices. Many original Hebraic texts contain insights into Judaism as to how it is practiced today, while 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 scholarship implications. Israel is very experienced in collecting, preserving, displaying, and sharing. All one has to do, for example, is to witness the Israel Museum’s clear images of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as see how they’ve been shared online for both scholars and the public. The Vatican’s archives do not display their Judaica collection at all.
In a speech Pope John Paul II gave at a Rome Synagogue (English text published by the Vatican, The New York Times, April 14, 1986) he said Jews “are our dearly beloved brothers, and in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers. 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. Not only is “Do Not Steal” the eighth commandment of what Pope John Paul II says Jew and Christians are both “the trustees and witnesses of,” but also, Jews are their “dearly beloved elder brothers.” Then why not return the stolen Jewish treasures to the Jews now?
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.]
Surely the Vatican can do the “Christian thing” and return what has unfortunately been acquired through plunder to their rightful heirs, the State of Israel, the lawful representative of the worldwide Jewish community. The time is now.
The writer is a former NYC advertising agency and marketing executive. An instructor at Rutgers University School of Communication & Information and a consultant. He made aliyah in 2015 and lives in Ashkelon.