Walter Farmer
Walter Ings Farmer, opposer of “the spoils of war”, died on August 9th, aged 86
IN THE months immediately after the second world war, Walter Farmer, then a captain in the United States army, was the head of a team sorting out the many paintings and other works of art salvaged from the wreckage of Germany. The National Gallery of Art in Washington coveted 202 of these treasures, among them paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Titian, Dürer and Botticelli. Mr Farmer and his team were ordered to pack them up and dispatch them speedily to America.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Walter Farmer”
Obituary August 23rd 1997
From the August 23rd 1997 edition
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