Detail of the ceiling in Palazzo Archinto
(Apollo & Phaeton by Tiepolo)
18th century, Milan, Italy
DESTROYED DURING THE WWII BOMBING

The World War II was probably the biggest and most elaborate campaign ever executed in the history of mankind to alter the fate of art. German dictator Adolf Hitler had an elaborate vision to make Germany the strongest country in the West, both politically and culturally. This dream country, according to Hitler was to consist of one of the largest libraries, universities and the biggest museum of european art. Nazis, according to the taste and personal liking of their leader, confiscated  large numbers of works from museums, private collectors and art dealers from all over Europe and stored them for their future museum. Artworks that were against the taste of Hitler, especially works made by Jewish artists were classified as Degenerate art and were again seized and stored, not for the museum collection, but because they were not thought to be worth being exhibited.

However, contrary to the common understanding, Nazi Germans did not actually destroy much of the art that they seized. Rather, knowing its worth in the international art market, they either

traded these works with the ones that they wanted to acquire,
or sold them for money.Most of the works they collected were and stored in crates, in mines, churches and tunnels. In most cases, the collection was elaborately documented which still allows us to identify them.

Nazis however could only acquire movable works like paintings on canvases and sculptures. Much of the art in Europe existed in the form of mural paintings and architecture, which did not share that fate of preservation and documentation and were often subjected to the cruelty of war. Such was the case of Palazzo Archinto in Milan that was destroyed in the bombardment during the Second World War, along with exquisite mural paintings by Tiepolo. The detail from the ceiling shown here depicts the myth of ‘Apollo & Phaeton’ portraying Juno with Fortune and Venus.

The only documentation of the painting existed in the form of a black and white photograph published in a book Tiepolo, Antonio Morassi, Instituto Italiano d’ Arti Grafiche that appeared in 1943 a few months before the ceiling, the palazzo and the entire documentation of the photographer was destroyed in a deadly series of air raids.