WWII art treasures stolen by the Nazis and found in this cave by the 'Monuments Men'

If you have been following my travels for many years, you may recall an event I went to when I lived in Charleston, where I met Robert Edsel, the author of the “Monuments Men” book, as well as several of the people who starred in the film, such as Bill Murray, etc.

…and if you haven’t seen the movie, I thoroughly recommend you do. It is a most amazing and inspiring true story…

Anyway, we managed to get our driver to take a detour and take us up to the mine where so many of the art treasures were found…

…and here we are! This building has been built over the front of the mine entrance, but this is where near the end of WWII, these amazingly brave men found and recovered priceless artworks that had been stolen by the Nazis.

A Madonna by Michelangelo, paintings by Rubens and Rembrandt, the Ghent Altar by the van Eyck brothers, works by Dürer and Vermeer – all of this and literally thousands more came within a hair’s breadth of going up in flames during the final weeks of the war in 1945.

When the German Reich began to collapse and the cities were turning into fields of rubble, the authorities began to hide their stockpile of treasures in disused mines.

In the spring of 1945, Hitler had given the order from Berlin that, in the event of defeat, everything should be destroyed – including the artworks that were being warehoused in the Altaussee mine, originally intended for the “Führer Museum” in Linz. Shortly thereafter, Hitler revoked the order, but despite this revokation, the Gauleiter of the Salzkammergut, August Eidgruber, did everything he could to destroy the art treasures inside Altaussee Salt Mine. Thankfully, the majority was saved… and these are the original tracks used…