Amassing a $6 Billion fortune in the process!
A Swiss Merchant of Death’s
Nazi Friends and
Suspicious Masterpieces
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| Emil Georg Bührle |
In 1948, an independent tribunal determined
that 77 artworks then in Switzerland
had been stolen in wartime France;
Bührle owned 13 of these.
Lawsuits for restitution were filed and,
after losing the first one to Paul Rosenberg,
he attempted to buy back the remaining paintings
at market value.
He was successful with nine of them,
returning the other four to their original owners.
Soon afterwards, the Swiss Federal Court declared
that Bührle had been unaware of the stolen paintings’
tricky provenance, and had originally bought them
“in good faith,” despite his well known association
with Göring.
This court decision was thought to indemnify Bührle
against future claims and it may also have lent him
an air of legitimacy: Pretty soon his company was again
supplying both the United States
and its NATO allies with arms.
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Switzerland is famous for never going to war
ReplyDeletebut Switzerland can now be equally famous
for never ignoring the fantastic profit margin
from arming all nations involved in warfare.