Alt Aussee is located about fifty miles from Salzburg. The area mines once provided a significant supply of salt to Europe. But it was their use as art repositories during World War II that resulted in their designation as “Cultural Property”. The name of the administration building is “Steinberghaus”. Note the rail track for small carts used to haul salt which leads into the building that houses the actual mine entrance.

In 1945, these soldiers from the U.S. 80th Infantry Division guarded the entrance to the administration building (and mine) and its priceless contents. “Steinberghaus” appears virtually unchanged today.

Above the stone entry to the mine is the word “Steinberg”, which is the name of this particular mine shaft. Mining from the Steinberg deposit first commenced early in the 14th century.

In 1945, MFAA officers of U.S. 3rd Army- Brig. Gen. Jay W. MacKelvie and Capt. Robert K. Posey- emerge from the mine after inspecting the hidden artworks.

It was through these lengthy and cramped corridors that some of the greatest works of art - Michelangelo’s Bruges Madonna, Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece, and Vermeer’s The Artist’s Studio and The Astronomer among thousands of others - were hidden by the Nazis and later evacuated to safety by Monuments Men and other Allied Forces.