German police find Hitler’s long-lost horse sculptures

A German investigation into black market art has recovered two bronze horse statues that once stood in front of Adolf Hitler’s grand chancellery building in Berlin as well as other Nazi-era pieces that had been lost for decades. Police in five states conducted coordinated raids during more than a yearlong investigation into illegal art trafficking. They seized pieces including the massive bronze horse sculptures by artist Josef Thorak and a 5-meter by 10-meter granite relief by Arno Breker, Berlin police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf told The Associated Press. The horses once stood on either side of the stairs into the chancellery that Hitler had built in downtown Berlin. The building, like most in the center of the capital, was badly damaged during World War II. It was ordered demolished after the war by the Soviets, who used much of its red marble walls to build a memorial to their war dead in East Berlin. The works were last seen in 1989 on display at a sports field in East Germany that was part of a Soviet barracks in Eberswalde, near Berlin, before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Arts