War trophies don’t come much more
imposing than the solid bronze statue that once adorned the prow of the
Graf Spee, a notorious Nazi battleship that sank numerous Allied
merchant vessels.
Weighing 700 pounds and with a wingspan of nearly 9 feet, the statue is a rare surviving example of the ultimate Third Reich symbol of an eagle perched atop a swastika.
It is also causing the Uruguayan government a headache after local businessman Alfredo Etchegaray had the statue salvaged from the wreck of the Graf Spee in shallow waters just off Uruguay’s capital of Montevideo in 2006.
Of course, it’s not the
only Axis relic to ever pop up in these parts. An estimated 9,000 Nazi
war criminals fled to South America after World War II, according to German prosecutors. The eagle is the latest reminder of the region’s unwanted links with the Third Reich.
Etechegaray claims to
have shelled out $5 million over three decades in retrieving parts of
the Graf Spee, and now wants a return on that investment.
After a lengthy legal battle, Uruguay’s supreme court has ruled that the PR mogul does own half the statue, with the other half belonging to the government.
He now wants to sell his
rights and have the statue, currently under wraps in a Uruguayan navy
warehouse, put on display in a museum. But he claims Germany is
pressuring the administration of President Jose Mujica to keep the
controversial sculpture out of public sight.
“If the government wants
to bury this statue they have the right to do that, but we also have
the right to get half the money for it,” Etchegaray said.
“Why shouldn’t it be
displayed publicly, in an appropriate way, of course, with historical
explanation? That’s what happens with the Roman Colosseum, with
artifacts from the Khmer Rouge, with torture instruments used by the
Inquisition.”
The German Embassy in Montevideo and the Uruguayan government’s National Heritage Commission declined to comment to GlobalPost.
Acting on Etchegaray’s behalf, Montevideo art gallery Gomensoro is now receiving offers
for the businessman’s 50 percent stake in the statue, which it values
loosely at up to $15 million. The reserve price, gallery owner Jose
Enrique Gomensoro claims, is between $3 million and $5 million.
“It’s 100 percent
certain it will sell,” Gomensoro adds. “But it’s very hard to say how
much it will fetch. It could all depend on the whim of a single
collector. How badly do they want it?”
That the statue is
unique is beyond dispute. The only similar one used by the
“Kriegsmarine,” Hitler’s navy, was on the prow of the Bismarck, a much
larger warship sunk in the North Atlantic in 1941.
Classed as a “pocket
battleship,” the Graf Spee was named after a German admiral and, for its
era, used state-of-the-art technology. Just over 600 feet long, it had a
top speed of 29 knots (about 33 miles per hour) and its main weapons
were six 52-caliber guns mounted in two turrets, fore and aft.
It sank nine Allied
merchant ships in the South Atlantic, as they brought vital supplies of
beef, wheat and wool, from South America to the United Kingdom, in the
early days of World War II.
But it was scuttled in
December 1939 just off Montevideo after being damaged in the ferocious
Battle of the River Plate and its captain, Hans Langsdorff, had been
tricked by British intelligence into believing that it was about to be
surrounded by the Royal Navy.
Residents of Montevideo
watched the ship burn for three days before eventually sinking in water
just 30 feet deep. Langsdorff shot himself in a Buenos Aires hotel three
days later.
Uruguay eventually
joined the conflict on the side of the Allies. Although after the war it
also, unwittingly perhaps, provided refuge to a small number of war
criminals, including one torturer known as Dr. Death.
But Gomensoro’s
valuation for the eagle-and-swastika statue was trashed by William Rey
Ashfield, a former head of the National Heritage Commission, who
described the multimillion-dollar price tag as “delirious.”
“Really, the Uruguayan
government should never have allowed any salvaging of the Graf Spee,”
Rey Ashfield said. “But now that this statue is on dry land, I hope that
an agreement can be worked out for it to be put on public display, but
not in a triumphalist way, here in Uruguay. This is part of our history
too.”
He was also skeptical of Etchegaray’s claim that Germany was opposed to the statue being displayed publicly.
“Germany is on the
sidelines. If anything, the problem is that they don’t want to get
involved, although they would definitely be concerned at the possibility
of a private sale leading to the statue falling into the hands of
neo-Nazis or being used to glorify the Third Reich.”
“It could be a good
attraction for a museum. But it is a controversial piece that many
people will also reject. It is a hot potato.”
Meanwhile, Etchegaray is
waiting for the Uruguayan government to make up its mind about what it
wants to do with its 50 percent stake in the statue. “I’m not waiting 20
years,” he said. “Deciding who owns it has already taken long enough.”
2 comMENTS:
http://ezekiel31army.blogspot.co.nz/2014/10/ww2-german-pocket-battleship-graf-spee.html
What a beautiful ship
http://ezekiel31army.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/maximilian-von-spee.html
This has opened up a very interesting and seldom mentioned saga in History
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