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SCOTTISH ministers launched a probe yesterday into claims that a chandelier hanging in the First Minister’s official residence may have been looted from nazi Germany.
An official guide book for Bute House, in Edinburgh, states that the chandelier was found “abandoned in one of the streets of Cleves” in northern Germany by English interior decorator Felix Harbord.
Mr Harbord, who was charged with repatriating works of art from nazi Germany, is said to have “had it packed in empty munitions boxes, which he addressed to No 6 Charlotte Square,” home of his client Lady Bute.
But Holocaust research organisation the Simon Wiesenthal Centre has cast doubt on its provenance, suggesting it may have been “looted from the British collecting point at Schloss Celle, or it may be an object looted from legitimate German ownership.”
The Scottish government has now called on heritage body the National Trust for Scotland, which owns Bute House, to investigate the claims after the 2008 report was unearthed by the Scottish Sunday Express.
