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86 FA L L 2 014 U N TAC K E D Life in Paris was short-lived. In 1814, follow- ing Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo and the restora- tion of the Bourbon Monarchy, the horses traveled to the Austrian Empire, which returned them to Ven- ice. Today, their replicas stand on top of the Basilica, and the originals, threatened by pollution, can be seen inside the Saint Mark's Basilica museum. But have these four equines found their rightful resting place? What about Istanbul's claim to them? To this date, no one has offered the Turks recompense, replicas or, history forbid, the originals. e Way Forward At the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, 44 countries agreed to return looted art or at least seek "fair solutions." In other words, they considered compensation to the heirs of the original owners. But actual laws differ in countries such as Germany, France, Switzerland and the United States. In fact, that 1938 degenerate art law remains in effect today in Germany. Curator Wolfgang Büche of the Moritzburg Foun- dation, from which Marc's Landscape with Horses was originally seized by the Nazis, says that while previous indi- vidual owners may have legal and moral rights to recovery, museums are forced to buy back their confiscated art. And museums like his, he says, cannot compete with the big bidders. Oddly, there's at least more hope of art being recovered after the war—as opposed to after random robberies by thieves who may slash canvases or cause other damage—because much of it was taken carefully and stored safely. Gurlitt had cared for many such classical pieces for THE YORCK PROJECT/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS PHOTO Franz Marc's Tower of Blue Horses hung for the first half of the 20 th century in Germany's National Gallery, but it's been missing since 1945. It was last known to be in the possession of Nazi leader Hermann Goering, who committed suicide in 1946 after being convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials. TRAVEL THE HORSE IN ART

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