Führermuseum

Adolf Hitler wanted to create a museum in the Austrian city of Linz where a display of art plundered or purchased by the Nazi party during WWII. The museum would be designed by Albert Speer and would include a "monumental" theatre, an opera house and of course the Adolf Hitler Hotel. This would all be surrounded by huge boulevards and a parade ground. There would also be a library that would have around 250,000 books (all of which were approved by Hitler, because if not they would just burn them).

Hitler hid the paintings during the war in his personal office buildings and deposits in upper Austria, when the threat of bombings were getting closer to where the pieces were kept they were moved into the salt mines of Altaussee to protect them.

After the war, the American Art Looting Investigation Unit or ALIU made reports about the Nazi plundering and consolidated all the reports into 4 detailed ones which were then used to return the art to its rightful owners. Stalin used this as an opportunity to stock his Soviet museums and create a museum that would be considered one of the best along with those of Britain.

SB

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Führermuseum