Bundesarchiv Koblenz:

Monuments, Fine Art and Archives Restitution Branch (MFA&A) Documents

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Title
Monuments, Fine Art and Archives Restitution Branch (MFA&A) Documents

Collection
Bestand B323:Treuhandverwaltung von Kulturgut bei der Oberfinanzdirektion München

Location
Bundesarchiv Koblenz

Description 
The Monuments, Fine Art and Archives Programme (MFA&A) was set up by the US War Department in 1943 in cooperation with the Roberts Commission to protect cultural materials in war areas. Its officers worked in Europe to salvage art and search for looted cultural property.
Much of that cultural property was handed to US Central Collecting Points. The main Collecting Point was located in Munich in 1949. Those artworks that had not been restituted when the US Central Collecting Points closed were placed in the trust of the Bavarian government. The Treuhandverwaltung (Trust management) was created in 1952 by the German Foreign Office to deal with problems concerning their restitution.

The records held in the collection at the Koblenz branch of the Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) were intended to assist German officials in the restitution process. They are highly important for provenance research. Some files are duplicates of original documents located at NARA (Washington DC, USA). The Monuments, Fine Art and Archives Restitution Branch Documents fill approximately 14 files. The total collection, known as Stock (Bestand) B323, contains approximately 700 files and includes documentation relating to the Linz Museum, the ERR, the Göring art collection and papers of the US Central Collecting Points. The Federal Archives at Koblenz have issued an information sheet on Stock B323 for researchers. It is reproduced in full on pp. 58-9 of the Guidelines (February 2001) concerning the implementation of the "Joint Declaration by the Federal Government, the Länder (Federal States) and the National Associations of Local Authorities on the tracing and return of Nazi-confiscated art, especially Jewish property" which can be downloaded from <http://www.lostart.de>, accessed 22 October 2002.

Contact Information
Requests regarding the archives and their content should be made by post or e-mail.
Bundesarchiv Koblenz
56064 Koblenz
Tel: +49 (0) 26 5050
Fax: +49 (0) 261 505 226
Email: koblenz@barch.bund.de
<http://www.bundesarchiv.de/>, accessed 22 October 2002

Source
Bundesarchiv Koblenz

Guidelines (February 2001) concerning the implementation of the "Joint Declaration by  the Federal Government, the Länder (Federal States) and the National Associations of local authorities on the tracing and return of Nazi-confiscated art, especially Jewish property" from December 1999, pp. 58-9. Handreichung vom Februar 2001 zur Umsetzung der "Erklärung der Bundesregierung, der Länder und der kommunalen Spitzenverbände zur Auffindung und zur Rückgabe NS-verfolgungsbedingt entzogenen Kulturgutes, insbesondere aus jüdischem Besitz" vom Dezember 1999, pp. 58-9

N. H. Yeide, K. Akinsha, A. L. Walsh (eds), AAM Guide to Provenance Research, Washington 2001, p.123

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