Munich and Company: Ferdinand Leeke 's wagnerian pictures, made on King Ludwig's order, travelling from Postdam to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

TRAGIC TRAIL OF THE KAISER'S ART TREASURES — TO PITTSBURG

an article of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, April 20, 1922

One of the unsolved mysteries of the war revealed through the surprising reappearance of three famous canvases which vanished from Potsdam Palace when ex-emperor William fled

An extraordinary chain of circumstances has "turned up" three of the most cherished art treasures of the German royal family, which for merly adorned the walls of the imperial palace at Potsdam — in Pittsburgh, as the property of an American business man.

They are the historic, canvases by Leeke, of scenes from the Wagnerian ring operas, originally painted by command for King Ludwig of Bavaria, and acquired some years later by the ex-Kaiserin for the Potsdam palace.

One of the most surprising features of the story is tho fact that the pictures were sold — were paid for in American dollars, which went directly into the ex-Kaiserin's own pocket although money was not the chief motive which caused her to part with them.

Why did she give them up?

What could have forced a proud Hohenzollern to sell tho pictures from her wall ?

Behind the mystery is a tragic drama in which the unhappy former Empress was the central figure.

After tho armistice, the overthrow of the German throne, and the collapse of German morale, the ex-Kaiserin lived for months in constant terror of being robbed and murdered.

She did not flee immediately from Potsdam when the Kaiser abdicated and sought refuge in Holland.

Unable at last to control these fears she disposed hastily and in secret of many treasures, which she could not carry with her and fled across tho border, accompanied only by a small and trusted personal entourage.

The three beautiful paintings, which are now the property of George W. Johannson in Pittsburgh, and which were purchased by him as the result of negotiations which the ex-Kaiserin herself began, were a part of the collection she disposed of at that time.

During the same tragic period, she was visited by an American woman. Miss Brenda Tarkington, who had formerly been a governess in her household, and to this old friend the ex-Empress confided the story of the fears that distressed her.

"I am unutterably miserable." the Kaiserin told her. "The most sinister rumors reach me daily, accompanied by anonymous correspondence containing all kinds of dreadful threats against my life and property.

"My life is indeed a horrible nightmare. The awful tidings and warnings which come to me almost every hour have completely shattered my always poor nervous system.

"I live in constant fear of my life, of fear that I may be murdered, that I may be robbed of the beautiful things — the Jewels and paintings — which were once a source of joy to me and which are now only ail added worry and danger."

The ex-Kaiserin had her own intimate and interesting reasons for wanting these paintings to pass into the hands of George W. Johannson, of Pittsburgh rather than anyone etse m the world, since she felt they were no longer safe with her. Why she sought Mr. Johannson, and why he accepted the historic trust, he himself tells.

Here is the strange story in Mr. Johannson's own words:

"My father, who was in lineal descent from Harald Harvagar, King of Norway in the ninth century, as an intimate friend of Wilhelm Richard Wagner. Why, I cannot say. Perhaps it was because he was a sailing ship captain. It may have been because Richard Wagner felt a profound interest in Norse mythology, as evidenced in his Niebelung operas, and my father typified those character.

So be it, he took me by the hand, a little lad, to the Wagner home in Munich, where Frau Wagner welcomed us and made part of their household. You will remember Lenbach's familiar portrait of the composer, which shows him wearing a flat velvet slouch hat ? Well, he did. He was of quick movement, temperamental, rarely still, but he composed himself to hear a tale of voyages made to Elysian Isles or a freezing up of months of Nova Zembia. And my father had other listeners there. Old Duke Guenther of Augustenburg Castle with his young daughter, Augusta Victoria, whom Bismarck later used as a pawn to placate Danish Schleswig by marrying the Prussian Crown Prince to her — but that is another story.

"Our visit was in 1875 and it happened to he Wagner's sixty-second birthday. He took great pride in drawing the curtains from these magnificent mural paintings, which had been presented to him that day by King Ludwig of Bavaria, his lavish patron and friend. They were wonderful in their presentation of the climaxes of the King operas, the grouping was masterly and the coloring jewel-like, even to a child. One represented Brunhilde swearing falsely that she is the wife of Siegfried before Queen Kriemhilde ; another showed Brunhilde condemned by Wotan for her false oath ; the third Hagan being drawn under the flood by the Rhine Daughters after losing his magic ring.

"Later, in the evening, King I.udwig joined the company, a robust specimen of manhood, tall, well set up, with a melancholy cast of expression which lit up when music was talked of, for this was his passion. It is history how he bankrupted his Kingdom building dream castle after castle in the Bavarian Alps, of how he idolized Wagner's music and impressed it on the world. They called him mad — a suicide. But to my story. In later year the ex-Kaiserin showed fine feeling for me, the little lad who had been part of these episodes in her young life, for you can imagine the deep impression Wagner's music made on the sweet young Princess of Schleswig-Holstein, in this unusual association at that time.

"Well, after the armistice, I went to Germany, and while there events succeeded each other quickly. Imagine my surprise when the equerry of tho ex-Empress was sent to me asking me to keep these can

vases for her (no longer the gold laced dapper official, hut strictly a plain clothes man.) I did not see how this could be done, and so stated. A second request was made that I take title to them, but without disposing of them. This was so uncertain a procedure, that I concluded an absolute purchase of them without conditions. So they were shipped by me to America.
"Wagner sleeps in eternal music ; King Ludwig is dead ; ex-Kalserin has joined him; here are the paintings. You can see why she held them sacred to memory."