On 4 June 1946, during an investigation into the disappearance of jewels belonging to the German aristocratic House of Hesse, some of the stolen German treasures were found as far away as Hudson, Wisconsin, where they’d been left by the woman who’d purloined them, Kathleen Nash Durant, a captain in the US Women’s Army Corps, for safekeeping in her sister’s house.
In the spring of 1945, Kathleen Nash was put in charge of the officers' club in the family castle of Hesse-Kronberg. Along with her colleagues, Colonel Jack Durant (who was to become her husband), and Major David Watson, Nash discovered a cache of family jewels in the cellar (the visitors of the club drank wine) where they had been hidden by Prince Wolfgang of Hesse-Kassel, son of their owner, Princess Margaret of Prussia. The American trio seized the treasures and extracted the precious stones from their settings to transport them to the United States, destroying objects of high artistic and historical value.
They sold a Faberge egg in Switzerland, where they regularly travelled. Being completely ignorant of the true worth of what they had stolen, they sold this unique work by a Russian jeweller for a paltry $400. Dozens of stones were hidden in ordinary mail parcels. Jack Durant sent part of the treasure to Ireland via a friendly embassy worker with a diplomatic passport.
The scandal was brought to light when Princess Margaret wanted to use the jewellery for the second marriage of her daughter-in-law Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark (whose first husband, Princess Margaret’s son, Prince Christoph of Hesse, had been killed in an airplane accident in 1943).
Being a lawyer, Durant immediately suggested that Kathleen Nash resign from the military and return to the United States to avoid war crimes charges. He also suggested that Nash marry him so that they could not testify against each other as close relatives. They got married in Chicago, and the bride wore Hesse jewels for the wedding. They traveled around the United States for several months, wasting money. To maintain such a luxurious life, it was necessary to sell the stolen jewellery piece by piece. They were eventually reported by jewellers who did not want to handle what were clearly stolen goods.
The marauders were arrested on 5 June, and in 1947 they appeared before the court. Major Watson was sentenced to three years in prison, Nash to five, and Durant to 15. During the trial, Nash stated: "If I am convicted, then you should know that thousands of Americans are also light-fingered."
The Hesse family got back no more than a tenth of the $1.5 million of jewellery. Of the small amount which was recovered, most was badly damaged. Presumably, the looters managed to hide something.
Source: Alexander Mosyakin. Plundered Europe: The universal circulation of treasures. M; Amphora, 2014
