Munich Central Collecting Point

At the end of World War II in May 1945, the 12th U.S. Army Group established several temporary collecting points where its forces brought cultural objects found in their zones of operation. The Munich Central Collecting Point (MCCP) was established in June 1945 in the former National Socialist Party buildings on Königsplatz in Munich. Lieutenant Craig Hugh Smith became the MCCP’s Office-in-Charge on 4 June 1945. Art works and cultural properties discovered at over a thousand storage sites across Bavaria and elsewhere were brought to the MCCP. On 1 October 1945, these objects were turned over to the custody of the Office of Military Government, United States [OMGUS], which administered the U.S. zone of occupation in Germany. Other collecting points were located in the German cities of [about:blank Marburg], [about:blank Wiesbaden] and [about:blank Offenbach]. The MCCP specialized in materials subject to restitution to rightful owners, including artworks from European museums and private collections. At its height, the MCCP held an excess of a million objects. On arrival the art objects were registered and labelled with an accession number (the so-called M- or Munich number) that included basic provenance information, its storage location, information on the item and its technique, as well as a short description. While 165 paintings from the Schloss Collection were looted from the Führerbau on 29-30 April 1945, 97 paintings were found unharmed in an auxiliary location on Arcisstraße (Munich) and brought to the MCCP and indexed. The MCCP closed its doors permanently in August 1951. Literature: Kurtz, Michael J. America and the Return of Nazi Contraband: The Recovery of Europe’s Cultural Treasures. Cambridge University Press, 2006. Lauterbach, Iris. Der Central Collecting Point in München. Kunstschutz, Restitution, Neubeginn. Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte. Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2015. Records on Fold3: Record Concerning the Central Collecting Points (“Ardelia Hall Collection”)” Munich Central Collecting Point, 1945-1951. [about:blank https://www.fold3.com/pdf/M1946.pdf]. Deutsches Historisches Museum: Database on the “Munich Central Collecting Point.” [about:blank https://www.dhm.de/datenbank/ccp/dhm_ccp.php?lang=en]. The Central Collecting Point and the founding of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte. [about:blank https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/the-central-collecting-point-and-the-founding-of-the-zentralinstitut-f%C3%BCr-kunstgeschichte-zentralinstitut-fuer-kunstgeschichte/wwKCPwWnNetDJQ?hl=en].