The Dance

In 1766 Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, bought this painting from a collection in Amsterdam, and for the next 175 years it stayed with his family, moving between their residences. In December 1941 the office that ran the former Prussian royal house's property sold it to Adolf Hitler, through the Berlin dealer Karl Haberstock, for the art museum Hitler planned for Linz in Austria. It was stored in Munich, and in May 1942 it went into the salt mine at Altaussee, a wartime depot for that collection. American troops took charge of it in 1945. It later became the property of the Federal Republic of Germany, and since 1966 it has hung in Berlin's Gemäldegalerie on long-term loan. The girl pausing mid-step in front of three young musicians is often called Iris, after the French verse printed beneath an engraving of the picture made in the late 1720s.