Short Takes : Former East German Loses Art
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BERLIN — Burglars made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of art from a Berlin house belonging to the former East German foreign currency chief, police said Monday.
About 35 paintings and porcelain and ivory carvings were discovered missing Nov. 2 from the home of Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, who fled East Germany during its anti-Communist revolution a year ago to avoid a fraud inquiry.
Schalck, who amassed huge hard-currency reserves for the ruling Communists and was accused of enriching senior party officials in the process, moved to the Bavarian Alps after being briefly jailed in West Germany.
He was extensively debriefed by West Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, and the fraud inquiry was suspended before German unification last month.
Investigators earlier confiscated more than $600,000 worth of art from Schalck’s home.
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