U.S. soldier stands watch over cache of valuable stolen paintings, Merano, Italy, 1945

Description: 

Photograph. Member of the U.S. 5th Army standing in room with valuable stolen paintings. Official Caption: "Valuable paintings stolen from Italian homes by the Germans are viewed in a tower room of Darendsberg Castle by a U.S. soldier. One of the portraits is the Duke Oswald, who ruled the Merano area in the early 16th century. It had been removed from the Great Hall downstairs and placed with the rest of the loot.--6800 F."”Merano, Italy. 1945

Image Information

Donor: 
Accession Number: 
Date: 
1945
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Items from the service of Isaac "Ike" Bethel Utley, who was born in Smith Mills, Kentucky on 3 March 1920. Ike enlisted in the Army Air Corps on 19 January 1942. He was shipped overseas to the European Theatre and worked with a supply division based out of the city of Naples with an office set up in a residential villa. Utley worked with the Office of War Information and used their photographs in news articles to inform soldiers of the progress of the war. At war's end, Utley returned stateside. A trunk full of over 800 photographs from the O.W.I. arrived on his doorstep from his office in Italy, sender unknown. This collection consists of those photographs.
Geography: 
Merano
Latitude: 
46.667
Longitude: 
11.150
Thesaurus for Graphic Materials: 
Military personnel--American--Italy
Paintings--Italy
War destruction & pillage--Italy