Goering’s dealers and collectors in Italy

Any provenance work pertaining to works and objects of art entering or leaving Italy during and after the Nazi era must cast a pall of suspicion on the following individuals who traded occasionally or frequently with Hermann Goering through two of his principal agents, Walther Hofer and Josef Angerer. Joseph Angerer, who swept through French Jewish collections in Paris during the summer of 1940 on Goering’s account, also acquired works in Rome while he stayed at the Hotel Excelsior there. Some items—tapestries mostly—were purchased from American or British owners living in Rome at the time. Angerer was also well acquainted in Florence with Contini and Bellini, and befriended Grassi there. He knew the city of Milan like the back of his hand.

The bulk of this information stems from detailed postwar interrogations and debriefings of Walther Hofer.

Florence:

• Luigi Bellini
• Conte Contini–Sometimes, Contini dealt with Goering through Reber, one of Hofer’s oldest friends who lived in Switzerland, using the Rome-based shipping company, Martelli and Rosoni.
• Giulio Grassi
• Commandantore Ventura
• Dr. Victor Wallerstein

Genoa:

• Eldebaudo Bossi–Bossi also dealt with Jacques Dubourg, a Paris dealer who was very busy during the Vichy years. Dubourg served as a go-between for Hofer for sales to Goering.

Milan:

• Ferruccia Asta

Rome:

• Alfredo Barsauli
• Ugo Fandola
• Dr. Alessandro Morandotti
• Galleria Sangiorgi
• Galleria Simonetti
• Graf Alessandro Tatistscheff
• Contessa Lina Traine
• Fr. Irene von Benda
• Fraulein Staeger
• Dr. Ettore Sestieri, art historian, director of Galleria Barberini.
• Brasini

Venice:

• Albert Maier