non-Jewish art collections in France untouched. To provide a
spurious aura of legality, a timid French professor, Jacques
Beltrand, was required to appraise the values of the items.
Beltrand, president of the Société des Peintres-Graveurs Fran-
çais, set the values absurdly low. Göring’s files reveal the profes-
sor valuing two paintings by Henri Matisse and portraits by
Amadeo Modigliani and Pierre Auguste Renoir at a total of one
hundred thousand francs (about five hundred dollars); two Pi-
cassos at thirty-five thousand francs; and “Galante Scène” by
Antoine Watteau at thirty thousand francs.
Bragging that his task force’s haul of art treasures in Paris,
Brussels, and Amsterdam already topped million marks,
Rosenberg appealed for further operating funds. “I shall ask
Reichsmarschall Göring,” he wrote to the Nazi party’s treasurer
on November , “to refund this money to you... [He] has
visited the depot in Paris several times and is evidently very
satisfied with the rich pickings.” The party bleated in reply that,
strictly speaking, the funds had been provided for Rosenberg to
research into Jewish and Masonic affairs. On November , Hit-
ler intervened with a formal order seeming to override Göring’s
directive of the fifth. Göring did not yield one inch. “As far as
the confiscated art works are concerned,” he argued, pleading
his own case in a letter written from Rominten on November ,
“let me highlight my own success over a considerable period in
recovering concealed Jewish art treasures. I have resorted to
bribery and hiring French detectives and police officials to win-
kle these treasures out of their (often devilishly clever) hiding
places.”
Asia would arrive in Paris with only a few hours’ warning,
and the Reichsmarschall would demand to see the latest haul at
the Jeu de Paume. With a carload of detectives following a hun-
dred yards behind him, he cruised through the bazaars of Paris.