Records of the Museum, Fine Arts, and Archives Section (MFAA) (RG 260) [Theaters of Operations Records]

The Museum, Fine Arts, and Archives Section (MFAA) had its origins in SHAEF. During the occupation of Germany the MFAA Section was first a section of the Restitution Branch of the Economics Division. It would be reorganized many times, including being transferred in March 1948 to the Property Division, along with the Restitution Branch. When the cultural restitution program ended in December 1948, the remaining MFAA functions were transferred to the Cultural Affairs Branch of the Education and Cultural Relations Division, where they remained until the end of OMGUS in September 1949. {Note 1}

General Records of the Section Chief 1944-1949

Boxes 720-722 location: 390/45/15/05
Box #  File Title or Subject
720  Ministerial Collecting Center Reports
                        Directives and Plans
            Offenbach Archial Depot
721  Jewish Archives and Libraries
            Personnel-Archives and Libraries
            Library of Congress Mission
            Archives-Libraries Reports, Surveys, Statistics
            OMGUS Organization, 1945, 1948
            Germany-MFA&A
722  Loan of Books OAD to AJDC etc.
            Restitution in Germany
            Lists, Inventories
            Microfilming and Photoduplication
            British
            Restitution-German-Internal
            Restitution-General
            Ministerial Collecting Center
            General Statements-Policy and Procedures
Records Pertaining to Restitution 1945-1948
   
        Boxes 723-724 location: 390.45/15/05
        Box #  File Title or Subject
        723  USSR Restitution
            Claims-Procedures
            Switzerland
            Dutch
        724  Germany (2 files)
            Italy-Misc.

Miscellaneous Records 1945-1949

        Boxes 725-726 location: 390/45/15/06
        Box #  File Title or Subject
        726  Monthly MFA&A Field Report-November 1944
            Vaucher Commission-Lists of Art Dealers July 16, 1945
            Duplicate Material-Monthly Report-MFA&A May and June 1945, G-5,  USFET

Correspondence Pertaining to Restitution of Cultural Properties 1945-1947

        Box 729 location: 390/45/15/06

Records Pertaining to Interzonal Restitution Transfers 1946-1947

        Box 730 location: 390/45/15/06

Cultural Property Claim Applications 1946-1948

        Boxes 733-767 location: 390/45/15/07

Claims of Cultural Property Removed by German Forces 1946-1948

        Boxes 768-774 location: 390/45/16/05

Records Pertaining to the Use of Declarations of Property Removed from Areas Occupied  by German Forces 1947-1948

        Box 775 location: 390/45/16/06

Lists of Property Removed From France During the War 1939-1945

        Boxes 781-783 location: 390/45/16/06

Footnotes

{1}Return to text For the activities of the MFAA Section researchers may find interesting Nicholas, Rape of Europa, op. cit, and Michael J. Kurtz, Nazi Contraband: American Policy on the Return of European Cultural Treasures, 1945-1955 (New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1985).

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