in France became in large part "Göring's personal looting organization." During the course of the war, Göring paid 20 visits to the Jeu de Paume in Paris to views the results of the ERR's confiscations. At times Göring also utilized Kajetan Mühlmann, an Austrian art historian and SS officer, as his personal agent. On occasion, Göring's desires conflicted with those of Hitler and Hitler's agents. When this occurred, Göring gave way, not wanting to provoke trouble with the Führer. Several times, he also made "gifts" to the collection of the Führermuseum. He sent 53 pieces from the French Rothschild Collection, which had been confiscated in Paris for him by the ERR, to Munich to be held for the Linz museum, including Vermeer's The Astronomer, sent in November 1940, and which became Hitler's most cherished painting in his collection. Later on, in 1945, Göring gave Hitler 17 paintings and 4 bronzes from the Naples Museum. These had been confiscated by the Hermann Göring Panzer Division while they were being shipped to safety from Monte Cassino to the Vatican, and were later presented to the Reichsmarschall at Carinhall, his "hunting lodge/art gallery/imperial palace." At its peak, Göring's art collection included 1,375 paintings, 250 sculptures and 168 tapestries. Its value has been estimated at several hundred million marks. When the Soviet Army was about to cross the Oder River into Germany in February 1945, threatening Carinhall, Göring began to evacuate his art collection by train, sending it to his other residences in the south of Germany. A second trainload went out in March. and a third in April. The contents of the shipments were personally chosen by Göring, who, at first, was inclined not to take the artwork he had acquired through the confiscations of the ERR, in case there might be questions of provenance in the future, but he was dissuaded from this course by Walter Andreas Hoffer, who was in charge of Göring's collection. Even after the contents of three long trains had left, Carinhall still had a considerable amount of art left in it, statues buried around the grounds, and looted furniture still in the rooms. Göring had Luftwaffe demolition experts wire the estate for destruction, so the treasures he had left behind would not fall into the hands of the Russians. Dealers and agents A number of art dealers and private individuals profited greatly from Hitler's campaign to stock