The Kimbell’s bust of Isabella D’Este by Romano was tagged in a photograph of the Alt Aussee Salt Mine in Austria, one of many repositories for artwork stolen by the Nazis during World War II by Robert Edsel, founder of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art. “We were intrigued but also apprehensive to discover that our sculpture was among the looted items in the salt mine,” commented Kimbell director Eric M. Lee. Unlike a looted turner painting the Kimbell returned in 2006, the bust was bought and paid for by Hitler in 1941 before being hidden in the salt mine, so can legitimately be kept.
Rare Terracotta bust owned by the Kimbell art Museum discovered to have been in Nazi salt mine during WWII!
