Dagobert Frey

Who was Dagobert Frey?

Dagobert Frey was an Austrian art historian, responsible for the theft of the most valuable European and Polish collections from the Warsaw and Kraków museums and national art galleries during the Nazi German occupation of Poland.

As professor in European art history from the Osteuropa-Institut, Frey was wined and dined by the Polish art experts numerous times in late 1930s. He prepared a meticulous list of the most valuable paintings at the National Museum, Warsaw among other locations across Poland. He showed up at the Museum again in October 1939 with the Gestapo, after the capitulation of the Polish capital, and directed the SS-Untersturmführer Theo Daeisel to art pieces that needed to be seized and shipped to Germany first, including the Portrait of a Young Man by Rembrandt from the collections of the Łazienki Palace, and numerous other masterpieces including paintings by Canaletto. The items stolen from the National Museum included 99% of all coins, 100% of historic clocks, 80% jewellery, 63% fabrics, 60% furniture, and 70% ancient manuscripts. The Gestapo headquarters in Warsaw presented the Rembrandt as a gift to Hans Frank in occupied Kraków. Frey moved to Kraków the same month, along with his colleague from the SS, dr Joseph Mühlmann. Together, they pinpointed all sorts of treasures at Wawel, directing Frank in a mass looting campaign. On Frey's advice, even the fireplaces were ripped out from the walls.