The Aftermath of the Looting of Montecassino: The Memory of Nazi Plundering in the Museum of Capodimonte

The presentation explores provenance research as both a reconstructive practice and an active force in shaping heritage memories and narratives. It focuses on paintings from the National Museum of Naples that were sheltered at Montecassino Abbey during WWII and looted by the Hermann Göring Division in November 1943. The interpretation of this wartime plunder changed after the reorganisation of the National Museum, when its painting collection was transferred to the newly established Museum di Capodimonte in 1957. This issue also emerges in the museum’s later acquisition of Bernardo Cavallino’s The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia, illegally sold to Nazi Germany in 1941 and accessioned in 1984, whose collecting history remains only partially acknowledged. The limited exploration of these episodes raises questions about the completeness of institutional narratives and invites reflection on provenance research in collections with predominantly aristocratic origins.