wife to safety in Switzerland, Miedl had asked Göring for funds:
Göring allowed Miedl to transfer the Van Gogh and Cézanne
paintings out to Switzerland instead. Hofer’s papers show that
Göring formally sold the paintings to Miedl for , marks
on March , . On April Fräulein Grundtmann paid
Miedl’s check into Göring’s art fund. The ex-Rosenberg pic-
tures reached Berne by diplomatic courier later that summer.
Fräulein Limberger’s task was further complicated by the
Reichsmarschall’s exchange transactions, like the one employed
to acquire seven paintings from the Renders collection together
with one mysterious “Vermeer.” Paintings by Jan Vermeer van
Delft were highly sought after. Göring had previously handled
only one, “The Man with the Hat.” In another was offered
to him, and Bruno Lohse’s files show that Fräulein Limberger
told him on July to travel to Holland and Monaco, with an-
other art expert, to examine it. Back through Hofer came word
that the painting was authentic. Then a third “Vermeer” sur-
faced, slightly damaged. When Göring still hesitated to meet the
very stiff price, the dealers piled on pressure showing him by
comparison a color photograph of a “Vermeer” with a biblical
theme, “The Road to Emmaus,” which, after Hofer’s wife, a
professional restorer, had cleaned it, showed the same bluish
yellow, characteristic of the true Vermeer, as the one on offer to
Göring. Soon afterward, Miedl cabled Göring urgent word that
the noted Dutch Rijksmuseum had now bought the damaged
one. Thus reassured, Göring clinched the deal, trading no fewer
than lesser works, including milked from the Goudstikker
collection, in return for the coveted “Vermeer.”
Years later, with less than six weeks to live, he learned that
the one he had acquired was a forgery, one of seven skillfully
concocted since by the master forger Hans Van Meegeren
(including, incidentally, the “Emmaus” shown to Göring as a