Paintings from the Berlin Museums Exhibited in Co-operation with The Department of The Army

Toledo was the final American stop on the Army-organized tour of approximately 200 paintings rescued from the Kaiser Friedrich Museum and held under US custody since 1945. The ten-day run, from March 22 to 31, 1949, drew more than 100,000 visitors and attracted 42,000 schoolchildren bused in from the surrounding region. Both Vermeers that had traveled the full circuit were on view: Woman with a Pearl Necklace (cat. no. 138, exhibited as “Young Woman with a Pearl Necklace”) and The Glass of Wine (cat. no. 139, exhibited as “Lady and Gentleman Drinking Wine“). From Toledo, the 38 crated works were transported to New York and loaded onto an Army transport that sailed on April 22, 1949, arriving in Wiesbaden on May 14.

The Toledo Museum of Art was founded in 1901 by glass magnate Edward Drummond Libbey and moved to its current Greek Revival building in 1912. The museum’s collection of more than 30,000 objects spans antiquity to the twentieth century, with particular strengths in glass art and European painting. The institution’s director at the time, Otto Wittmann, had served as one of the Monuments Men tasked with recovering Nazi-looted art during the war, giving Toledo a direct personal connection to the paintings on its walls.