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available at Munich. It is also intended to obtain for the Documents Center further data pertaining to Hitler's purchases for his proposed great museum at Linz. Inasmuch as substantial portions of these collections are actually stored at the Collection Point, the desirability for full documentation is obvious.

TOKEN RESTITUTIONS

While the work of documentation continues, efforts are being made to return the works to their rightful owners. Token restitutions, primarily gestures made in anticipation of the mass return of art once it has been separated and documented, are now being effected. The first instance of such restitution was the Brothers Van Eyck's "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb", which was flown to Brussels several weeks ago. Another, Michelangelo's "Madonna and Child" has been returned to Bruges, while 71 top-flight paintings looted in France have been returned to their rightful owners. Twenty-six paintings, including four very fine Rembrandts (among them his last self-portrait) were returned to the Netherlands. The Czechs have received the nine-panelled altarpiece by the 14th-Century "Master of Hohenfurth," and the highly-valued National collections of the Army Museum at Prague. Plans are under way to return to Cracow the great altarpiece of the Mariakirche.

Mass restitution of art will require increasing responsibility on the part of

[[image - Michelangelo's Madonna and Child being loaded into a crate by three workmen]]
^[[pencil note in right margin: Mr Hour, with what appears to be a line to the man standing at the right of the photograph]]

[[caption]]
Michelangelo's "Madonna and Child", an early work, is shown here being evacuated from the Alt Aussee mine. It was brought from Bruges in the spring of the year. "To save it from the barbarity of the Americans" this treasured possession of Belgium was dumped into a mattress and brought across the breadth of Germany over roads which were constantly being strafed by Allied planes. Fortunately, the marble was undamaged, and has been returned to Belgium as a token restitution.[[/caption]]

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