As enthralling as a thriller, this book describes the fate of some of the most precious European art treasures encountered during the Second World War. Countless boxes filled with art objects and thousands of paintings of Austrian and international origin were secured in the salt mountains of Bad Ischl and Altaussee, thus, being kept hidden from war affairs. Some of these items belonged to the Viennese museums. Many of them, which were stored in Altaussee, were one day intended to be an essential addition to the planned “Führer-Museum” in Linz.
But, suddenly, just on the point when the war was about to end, these treasures were in jeopardy again: August Eigruber, chief (Gauleiter) of the Upper Danube district, ordered bombs to be stored side by side with the art treasures in the mountains and a certain Baldur v. Schirach was going to secretly remove the most precious objects to Tyrol.
The dramatic saving action of brave and engaged museum experts and members of the saline, and the further fate of the art treasure was described in an academic and comprehensive way in the 1st published edition of this book in 1986.The newly presented 3rd edition, which is now available, has taken into account the latest results of research and the resent literature concerning these past events. |
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