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69 °F Forecast | Road Cams Tuesday, May 24, 2005 Today's News | Shop Our Valley | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery | Contact Us SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Biz Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend May 21, 2005 Ulrike Gauss of Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany, looks for clues in the old German books of Clarence Brown while, from left, Brown, Wilhelm Korte and Joachim Uhlmann discuss Brown�s uncle, who fought in Germany during World War II. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Spoils of war An uncle’s book collection included a rare German tome taken during World War II By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune In Clarence Brown’s family, books are held in high esteem. "We’ve always been big readers," said the Medford resident. "We grew up with lots of books." So it came as no surprise to Brown, 54, when he visited his uncle John Doty’s home near St. Louis, Mo., that the World War II veteran had a large library. What came as a huge surprise is that one of the books — a rare 16th century German edition formerly in his uncle’s library — has been appraised by Sotheby’s at $600,000 and is embroiled in a legal battle over the spoils of war. Brown was informed earlier this year by attorney Thomas Kline, representing the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg and the Staatsgalerie museum at Stuttgart, that the book of drawings of nobles from Augsburg had shown up for auction at Sotheby’s, appraised at $600,000. The German government is now suing for ownership against the book dealer who had offered it for auction. Advertisement At the invitation of Brown and his wife, Sharon, representatives of the German government, the museum and an attorney for the government visited their comfortable Medford home Friday. They were there to determine if any books he had from his uncle’s collection once belonged to the museum. No former museum books were found. Created by German artist Heinrich Vogtherr, the volume now in legal limbo contains 43 original drawings and 53 iron etchings depicting nobles from the city of Augsburg. The state of Germany believes that Capt. Doty, a German language interpreter for the 63rd Infantry Division, took that book and others from a castle in Waldenburg where museum officials had stashed them. Waldenburg, a medieval town, was leveled in fighting at the war’s end. As conquering armies from all nations, including Germany, have done down through the centuries, many Yanks no doubt collected cultural artifacts and art objects that caught their fancy. Doty was an English literature major in college, receiving his bachelor’s degree at Amherst College, followed by graduate study at the University of California at Berkeley. His parents, the late Leon and Myrtle Doty, were longtime Medford residents. "The German government is saying that my uncle basically stole it, which is technically true," Brown said. "He took what was not his. Of course, it was a war situation. But in a legal sense it wasn’t his to take. They didn’t give it to him. "Pretty much everybody in our family feels it should go back to the German government — to the museum." But there’s a major technical problem. The family sold the volume along with a dozen others to a book dealer in 1999 after Dorothy Doty, the widow of John Doty (who had died six years earlier), decided to move into a retirement home. The couple had no children. Brown and his brother, Peter Brown, of Maine, had been asked by Dorothy to pare down the items her husband had collected over the years. They suggested — and she agreed — that some of the books be sold to raise money to ship other items like furniture to John Doty’s family members. The brothers sold about a dozen German books, including the Augsburg volume, to a book dealer for what they recall was $750. That dealer in turn sold the Augsburg book for $3,900 to another dealer who then offered it to Sotheby’s. However, some of the books his uncle owned, including a few German editions, were given to relatives, including the brothers’ four other siblings. "The book of etchings and some other ones were obviously old," Clarence Brown said. "We didn’t know what their subject matter was. We didn’t think anybody in the family was interested in them." In hindsight, had the brothers known it came from the museum, they would have notified the German government, he said. "It’s unclear exactly how my uncle obtained the material," Brown said. "There was a fire in the castle. There was fighting all around it." Waldenburg was destroyed during fighting from April 13-16, 1945, said art expert Ulrike Gauss, head of the Staatsgalerie’s department for printing and drawings. "It was a medieval town," she said while poring over Brown’s books Friday. "At the end, nothing left." After inspecting the three German books in Brown’s collection, Gauss concluded they weren’t from the museum. Joachim Uhlmann, representing the ministry of science, research and art, concurred. "We’ve always been told our books were burned in ’45," Gauss said of the museum’s editions. "But now we know it’s not true. Some of them survived and are starting to appear in the art world. "It would be marvelous for our history to find more of them," she added. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Free Music Downloads Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg diamonds Distance Education Diamonds Online Poker Auto Insurance Mesothelioma Slippers Student Loans tcg student loan consolidation teleconferencing Website Design & Marketing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Mortgage Calculator Free Home-Loan Referrals Payday Loans Advertisement s