Augustus the Strong

This is a photo I took of a painting that really impressed me. In the Extra photo you can read all of the details on it. Augustus was Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. He also loved women!

It hangs in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I have been reading the book telling the history of this museum and this painting is one that is featured in the book. For a very special reason - its journey to the museum from its former owners is a unique story.

The painting used to be owned by the Rothschild family, and was stolen by the Nazis soon after the annexation of Poland, and then was retrieved by the Monuments Men. It was found stored in a salt mine in Austria in 1945. One of the Monuments Men happened to be the director of this Museum of Art, in Kansas City.

Several years later the museum acquired the painting through a NY dealer when the widow, Baroness Clarice von Rothschild put the painting up for sale.