On April 18, 1945, a crisis team met in the general management of the saltworks to discuss the measures that were necessary to save the Ischler salvage from having to store a bomb like the one in Aussee.

According to this plan, the salvage should be made completely inaccessible. The "filling point" of the Distler shaft in the Erbstollen should be completely filled up with rock, "collapsed". The elevator is to be pulled up to the ceiling of the Leopold horizon, i.e. to its highest point, and shut down there. The stairs that lead up next to the elevator, the so-called "rides", are to be torn out below and above the I. and II. underground constructions and the burial of the pit between the I. and II. underground constructions is to be strengthened. This work was completed by May 5, 1945.

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In the meantime, the situation in Ischl / Lauffen has also deteriorated dramatically. Between April 20 and 25, 1945, a total of 928 pictures of various origins from Kartause Gaming (Lower Austria) arrived here. On the orders of Hermann Stuppäck (General Cultural Officer of the Reich Governor Baldur von Schirach) in Gaming, the paintings had been thrown in a hurry "without any consideration and without the slightest care".  Due to the "barbaric" nature of the transport, numerous paintings "were perforated, torn off, damp or otherwise damaged in Bad Ischl/Lauffen. But that was not all, Stuppäck arrived in Bad Ischl on April 25 with orders from Schirach to move the salvaged goods kept in Lauffen further west without delay. At first Luithlen successfully resisted the order, but the arrival of officers and soldiers from the "Fabian Combat Unit" from the SS Panzer Division "Großdeutschland" on the evening of May 1st made any further delay impossible. Captain Reinhardt and Lieutenant Kahles would not be put off.

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Bergrat Lepez refused the SS commander to provide the mine locomotive, the winding machine and the miners on the pretext that there was no corresponding clear written order from the Waffen SS command. Under threat of the use of weapons, the captain drove furiously to Gmunden to obtain the necessary powers of attorney. This saved valuable time again.

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On May 3rd, however, the 184 paintings desired by Schirach and Stuppäck - including all paintings by Rembrandt, P. Bruegel the Elder, had to be handed over. Ä., Titians and Velazquez, 49 tapestry sacks and two crates are loaded onto trucks.

It turned out that a whole series of the main pieces from the Viennese picture gallery were to be kidnapped in this way. Among them were Bruegel's "Peasant Wedding" and "Peasant Fair", "Carnival Games", "Tower of Babel", "Homecoming of the Herd", "Storm at Sea", "Bird Thief" and "Pauli's Conversion", 6 Velasquez -Pictures, 7 Titians, including the cherries and the Gypsy Madonna, as well as the portrait of Jacopo della Strada, the two well-known self-portraits and the reading Titus by Rembrandt, and finally the "All Saints' Day" and "Emperor Maximilian" by Dürer. So you can safely say, not only the most valuable, but also a number of the most popular pictures in their gallery.

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You worked late into the night. The marching orders were given on May 4th. At 4 a.m. the convoy with the restorers Hajsinek and Sochor left Bad Ischl in the direction of Mittersill. In the evening of the same day, the convoy arrived in Bramberg in the Pinzgau region of Salzburg, where Stuppäck was already awaiting the transport. But the odyssey of the art treasures was not over yet. The very next day, Major Fabian ordered the paintings, boxes and tapestry sacks to be loaded onto the trucks. The transport could only be accompanied by officers. Franz Sochor and Josef Hajsinek stayed in Bramberg, where they contacted the advancing American army and reported the incident.

All cultural assets were then found by the Americans in St. Johann in Tirol.

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The final result of the Ischl salvage was:  8 figures, 1428 paintings, 122 sacks with tapestries, 278 folder boxes with cadastral maps and 728 boxes. A total of 150 tons of salvage.

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On May 13, 1945, US troops arrived in Bad Ischl and took control of the salvage site.

​ On June 1, 1945, with the permission of the occupiers, the work to uncover the treasures in the salt mine could also begin, namely in the Erbstollen and in Plant XII in the I. underground construction. The II. civil engineering was initially still buried, but its opening was tackled soon afterwards. On June 13, 1945, the main salvage at the "Bahnhof" in II. Civil Engineering was accessible again. The salvage proved to be in excellent condition, with the exception of a lost painting, a bouquet of flowers by Jan Brueghel the Elder. Ä., which later reappeared in a private apartment in Munich and returned to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in 1959 after a court decision.