Incredible Images From The First Western Photographer To Step Foot Inside Hitler’s Hidden Bunker

Some Art Was Left Behind

Photo Credit: William Vandivert/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

It is known that the interior of the Führerbunker was decorated with extravagant art pieces hand-picked to Hitler’s liking. However, most of these art pieces were destroyed or looted during the raid with no consideration to where they may have come from or their significance. This painting left behind from the invasion was later realized to be a 16th-century painting that had been taken by the Nazi regime from a museum in Milan.

This is one of the countless works of art that were taken by the Nazis from the 1930s until the end of the war. Founder of the Gestapo, Hermann Göring, had a personal collection of stolen art that numbered in the thousands.