Albrecht Gaiswinkler

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Albrecht Gaiswinkler (October 29, 1905—May 11, 1979) was an Austrian civil servant, social democrat (SPÖ) politician and resistance fighter, who, some believe, saved the Mona Lisa from destruction in an Austrian salt mine towards the end of World War II.

Gaiswinkler was born in Bad Aussee, Austria in 1905. In 1934, he was a political prisoner for some months. In 1944, while serving with the German Wehrmacht in France, he deserted and joined the Maquis, bringing with him four trucks of arms and ammunition and 500,000 francs. When the U.S. Third Army liberated Alsace in September 1944, he gave himself up them (along with 17 German prisoners). He then went to work for the British Special Operations Executive and, in 1945, he was parachuted back into the Aussee area with three colleagues: Valentin Tarra, Johann Moser and Hans Renner.

The Germans had pillaged a huge number of European art treasures during the Nazi period and many had been stored in a salt mine near Gaiswinkler's home town of Bad Aussee. After being dropped into the local area, Gaiswinkler raised a force of around 300 men and armed them with captured German weapons. He spent the last weeks and months of the war harassing local German forces. When the Americans arrived, his information helped them capture several eminent Nazis. He and his colleagues had captured the salt mine, prevented the destruction of the artworks held there and were able to hand over "a number of Nazi treasure hoards, including the Mona Lisa and the Austrian Imperial Crown Jewels". Other artworks rescued included the Ghent Altarpiece.

The administrators of the Louvre have stated that the Mona Lisa was kept in France during the second world war, but that it is possible that a 15th or 16th century copy of the Mona Lisa was held in Austria.

After the war, Gaiswinkler was a SPÖ member of the Austrian Parliament from 1945-1949. He died in Bad Aussee in 1979.