American Soldiers Discover 'In The Conservatory', A Work Of Art Plundered And Hidden In A Salt Mine By Nazis During WWII

Via: wikimedia

April 25, 1945

Three American soldiers admire the newly-discovered painting In the Conservatory, one of the thousands of rare works of art and documents plundered and hidden in the salt mine of Merkers, Germany during the Nazi regime.

Via: bonzashella

Also known as In the Winter Garden, the oil-on-canvas masterpiece was painted by French Impressionist Édouard Manet in 1879. The painting depicts Manet's friends, the Guillemets, sharing an intimate moment in a Parisian conservatory, surrounded by exotic foliage. The artwork was housed in the Gemäldegalerie museum prior to World War II. Under Nazi occupation of Germany, In the Conservatory would be taken and hidden in the mine until its discovery in 1945.