speeches
Return of Paintings to Pirmasens Museum
Ambassador William R. Timken, Jr.
Berlin
February 10, 2006
It is a great honor for the Embassy to host this event today. In my short time as Ambassador, I had a wonderful opportunity the other day to swear into citizenship with the United States, some 26 people in Frankfurt, which I found to be a unique and great honor.
The event today is of similar significance and uniqueness to me because I have a strong belief that the rightful owners of property should have their property. So today with the results of the FBI’s Art Theft Program we are able to officially return three paintings by the German painter Heinrich Bürkel to their rightful owner, the Pirmasens City Museum. These and a number of other paintings disappeared in the confusion of the last days of the Second World War as forces of the 66th U.S. Infantry Reserve and the 71st U.S. Infantry Divisions fought German troops and occupied your city.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI Art Theft Unit, worked closely with your city and the Museum and the German Embassy in Washington to recover these paintings. And while it is hard to reconstruct the full history of where they have been over the last sixty years, what is now important is that efforts continue to return cultural property to their rightful owners. This is a difficult and challenging process -- not always successful -- but the important thing is that the efforts are continually being made.
Taking, or destroying, a country's cultural heritage has unfortunately been a part of warfare since men’s first recorded history. There are many examples, in ancient and modern history, that go far beyond the isolated acts of individual soldiers.
Today, illicit trade in art and cultural artifacts is a major category of international crime. And I’m especially proud of our FBI for addressing the illicit trafficking of stolen art and antiquities through its Art Theft Program, maintaining liaisons both with experts in various areas of art and international law enforcement agencies. These hard working law enforcement officers have been involved in numerous recovery efforts, including retrieving a $36 million Rembrandt painting stolen from the National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden; rare light fixtures stolen from France; and rare books and prints stolen during an armed robbery of the Transylvania University Library in Lexington, Kentucky in the United States.
The special agents who are here today picked the right time to visit Berlin -- during the annual film festival. When you see the plots of movies, some of the arts looting that has been done would make a good story. But this is not the movies; this is real life. And I might add that one of the particular challenges this unit now faces is tracking objects and documents taken from museums and sites in Iraq, such as the eight ancient cylinder seals that were recently recovered by the FBI’s Art Theft Unit, as we try to help Iraq establish itself as a great nation in the world body.
And I now like to ask Agent Ives to step forward so we can congratulate him and his people on what they have accomplished. The United States has shown in these cases, and as in the case of your paintings, that we value the archeological and cultural heritage of other societies. America has been enriched by the contributions of people from around the world, making respect for the culture and values of others an essential part of what we are in America. Today’s ceremony gives us the opportunity to show the commitment of Agent Ives and many others to these ideals.
Vielen Dank. Thank you.
