On
the occasion of a very disappointing Siggraph for those of us
struggling to make a living with computer animation and failing, as
so many do, several colleagues have suggested the idea that searching
for Nazi gold could be a viable career alternative.
Of
course, they are responding to the recent events in Europe where two
different stories about Nazi gold have been in the press. In one
case, a young woman found a mysterious ingot of gold at the bottom of
a shallow lake in the German alps with its identifying marks
scratched off. And in the other, two people in Poland claim to know
the location of a train that was allegedly hidden by the Nazis in a
labyrinth of railroad tunnels at the end of World War 2.
At
first glance, this activity might seem a promising way to make a
living, at least in comparison with the disaster of computer
animation, but I think when we review all the facts it will become
clear that there are other potential career paths, like art fraud or
laundering money, which have a better chance of being successful.
Its
hard for Americans to relate to the European concept of treasure
hoards littered around the countryside, left behind by invading hordes as it were, hoards from the hordes, whether Roman hordes, Anglo Saxon hordes, Crusaders acting like hordes, Moors,
Normans, Danish, Vikings and what-have-you raping and pillaging and
stealing everything they can get their hands on, only to melt it all
down and bury it for safe keeping, there to be found by a nerdy but
sincere metal detection wielding citizen who has been searching
relentlessly every weekend for the last 30 years. The facts are
that some people do this in Europe (search every weekend) and every once in a while they really
do find something. (1)
Aside
from these more official discoveries, there are also signs that
other, less formal, activities are taking place behind the scenes
with good results. An annoying number of previously unknown fine art
objects regularly show up on the antiquities market having been
plundered from an ancient grave by some scumbag who has been tempted by an evil antiquities broker. Some of these dastardly folks only
pretend to plunder graves, they dishonestly forge ancient art items
and shamelessly sucker some corrupt collector or curator into buying
them in a variation of the famous adage “you can not cheat an honest curator”.
But
as romantic as these more ancient hoards are, the real action is in
caches of art and gold left behind by everyone's favorite, the
National Socialists in the period roughly 1944-1945. As thieves and
murderers, the National Socialists of the last world war were in a
class all to themselves. First they would roll the Wehrmacht in,
then they would roll the gold out of national treasurys, the art out
of the museums, and the Jews into the camps stealing everything they
ever had along the way. When you melt down a million gold dentures,
it just looks like gold bars to those helpful Swiss bankers who are
always happy to launder money for the criminal du jour. Some
things never change.
But
do we really think that there is a lot more to find out there? The
problem is that it is very hard to tell. Officially, we know of lots
of things that are still missing. But who is to say that some of
this missing gold was found but no formal press release issued? Who
is to say which famous trainloads of decadent art were hidden in an
abandoned mine instead of being destroyed by aerial bombardment on
its way there? What 100 tons of gold were processed by the Swiss,
what disappeared into the Tsar's vault in Moscow, what treasure from
Troy now lies in the basement beneath the Hermitage waiting a year, a
century, a millinnia before it sees the light of day?
Keep
in mind also, that while the average computer animator knows hardship
and rough working conditions, he or she has rarely dealt with
abandoned mines, networks of crumbling railroad tunnels filled with
unexploded munitions, or deposits at the bottom of very deep, very
cold lakes. Yes a computer animator knows how to endure hardship
only to be disappointed. But for every hoard found by a metal
detection practitioner, how many others work for decades for a
handful of copper?
The odds are as likely that you will write a screenplay that gets made into a successful movie. Or that you will be recognized for your talent and invited to direct a film. One seems about as likely as the other, being successful in the motion picture industry or finding a cache of Nazi gold. If you have to go through the trouble of changing your career, I recommend finding something with more likelihood of success.
The odds are as likely that you will write a screenplay that gets made into a successful movie. Or that you will be recognized for your talent and invited to direct a film. One seems about as likely as the other, being successful in the motion picture industry or finding a cache of Nazi gold. If you have to go through the trouble of changing your career, I recommend finding something with more likelihood of success.
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1. The most famous recent example of this is the fabulous story of Maj (ret) Tony Clunn of the British Army, MBE, who discovered the location of the famous battle of Teutoberger Wald in Germany. See
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