Eve Tucker

Evelyn Tucker, a Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFA&A) representative, worked in the US military–occupied zone of Austria, investigating and restituting Nazi-plundered, Austrian-owned cultural property between 1946 and 1949. Her experiences remain hidden despite passing references in the scholarship covering Allied restitution of Nazi-looted, Jewish-owned cultural property, as the literature focuses on postwar Germany, not Austria. She attempted to openly criticize the US Army for the thefts by blaming the Army’s appalling behavior on its lack of understanding US restitution efforts. However, she was incapable of stopping this gross negligence, and her condemnation of the Army led to her dismissal. I argue that contentious political divisions within the Allies’ policymaking in occupied Austria stalled Tucker’s restitution investigations, thus her work deserves critical investigation. Tucker defied expectations, and a thoughtful analysis of her contributions to the restitution process helps us gain a clearer appreciation of the political and cultural chaos of occupied Austria. In relationship to that gap, my archival research sheds light on the underappreciated role of Eve Tucker in her fight for rightful restitution.