New Additions to the Monuments Men and Women Foundation Collection

The Foundation recently contributed meaningful new additions to the Monuments Men and Women Foundation Collection at the National WWII Museum when senior researcher Casey Shelton traveled to the Museum to transfer several objects donated by relatives of two Monuments Men.

Portrait of a Monuments Man, by a Monuments Man

Among the objects donated was a portrait of Monuments Man T/5 Charles Bernholz, painted by his friend and fellow Monuments Man, Maj. Deane Keller. Keller served as the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) officer with the Fifth US Army in Italy, with Bernholz as his assistant and photographer. A professor of painting and drawing at Yale University, Keller was considered the school’s “unofficial portraitist” of faculty and completed many over his career.

The portrait was donated by Bernholz’s son, Eric, who also shared its unique story. After his father passed away in 1977, his mother, Josephine Bernholz, asked Keller—whom their family had always called The Captain, as he had been a captain during his service with Bernholz—to paint a portrait of her husband to commemorate him and his military service. She provided their wedding portrait from 1946 for reference, in which Bernholz had worn his uniform.

Due to a misunderstanding, Keller initially painted a color version of the entire wedding photograph, including both Charles and Josephine. Because Josephine had hoped for a portrait of only her husband, Keller later revised the painting upon her request to “paint her out.” He carefully removed her portrait and replaced it with a map of the Italian peninsula, marking Anzio in yellow to reference Bernholz’s wartime service. The portrait reflects both Bernholz’s wartime service and the lasting friendship between the two men.

Photographic Albums of the Altaussee Salt Mine

The second group of objects is historically significant in visualizing the recovery efforts and contents of the Altaussee salt mine—the repository where the Monuments Men recovered works destined for Hitler’s Führermuseum.

Donated by Maria Posey on behalf of her late husband Robert Michael, the son of Monuments Man Maj. Robert Kelley Posey, these four photographic albums include images of the masterpieces stored in the salt mine as well as the discovery and recovery efforts undertaken by the MFAA that led to their eventual restitution. Posey, MFAA officer assigned to Patton's Third US Army, along with his assistant and fellow Monuments Man Pfc. Lincoln Kirstein, were the first to enter the mine after the war.

These brown leather albums are also unique in another way. The physical albums themselves are the same type as the thirty-nine photographic albums containing images of cultural property looted by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) during World War II. These albums were seized by the United States Army in 1945 and were subsequently submitted as a United States exhibit at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Through the efforts of the Foundation, and additional four albums were recovered and donated to the US National Archives in 2007, 2012, and 2014.

Now preserved in the Monuments Men and Women Foundation Collection at the National WWII Museum, the portrait and photographic albums will help further the study of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program and its remarkable work. Visitors and researchers alike can explore this legacy in the Monuments Men and Women Gallery at the Museum, which highlights the work and impact of the MFAA during and immediately after World War II, as well as through the reading room, where archival materials not on display are made available for research.

It's through important donations of historical objects like these, that we ensure the history and legacy of the MFAA continues to be studied and shared with future generations. Both the Posey and Bernholz families have been long-time supporters of the Monuments Men and Women Foundation and its mission to preserve the legacy of those who worked to protect and recover cultural heritage during World War II. The Foundation is deeply grateful to the families for their generosity in sharing these meaningful objects and the stories behind them.