Russia & Germany Unite

Old Foes come together in search of historic artifacts lost during WWII.

Russia and Germany have united in a common cause to locate thousands of lost artifacts that were seized during WWII.  During the war Russians hid lots of valuables while Germans stole many others, with thousands being lost somewhere along the way.

The Russian Culture Ministry has compiled a list of lost historic objects including some 70,000 items which disappeared from Soviet museums and palaces during WWII. The list was created with the help of data from the 1930-40s.

The project has great intentions, but many think that the efforts will be larely unsuccessful, mainly because it is highly unlikely that the German soldiers from the time documented all of the objects which they confiscated. 

However hard it may be, both sides plan to work hard to track the items, many of which were taken out through Riga and Kaliningrad back to Berlin and other parts of Germany. Another difficulty is that after 60 years many of these items now are part of private collections.

Only time will tell how successful the project will be, but we can all hope that at least some of the lost artifacts make their way home.