Russia's Secret Spoils of World War Ii

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Before the collapse of communism, all Russian museums got government support, meager though it was by Western standards; but now, laments Piotrovsky, "even the Hermitage is getting much less than it was getting before." The financial crunch has revived talk of selling off items from the collection, as the Hermitage did in the 1920s; but that, the director points out, would be "a disaster -- you have only to begin, and you will finish and the museum has nothing."

As to the myriad looted artworks left over from the war, there is only one ethical course open to the Russian authorities: they must honor Russia's signature on the 1954 and 1990 accords and let the works go back to Germany -- on condition that the Germans return a proportionate amount of the things they swiped. It would be intolerable for President Yeltsin to give in to the pressure of the ultranationalists and nostalgic apparatchiks who want to keep the looted art in Russia as "reparations." Theft is theft. But there may be capital to be made from letting go. Is it too hard to imagine an accord between Germany and Russia through which the mutual return of the loot was preceded by a series of spectacular international exhibitions of it?

One may assume that not everything that has been kept out of sight is a masterpiece -- but a lot of things on both sides must be, since they were not chosen at random. How much could the financially strapped Hermitage reap from a royalty on the tickets, catalog sales, replicas and other spin-offs? One thing is certain: kept unseen, in the basements, such treasures profit no one and are a liability to both sides.