to Andrew W. Mellon, but the Austrian government prohibited the export of the painting. After the annexation of Austria, Philipp Reemtsma with the help of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring attempted to acquire the painting. The transaction to a private person was refused being cultural heritage. It was finally acquired by Adolf Hitler for the collection of the Linzer Museum at a price of 1.82 million Reichsmark through his agent, Hans Posse on 20 November 1940. The painting was rescued from a salt mine near Altaussee at the end of World War II in 1945, where it was preserved from Allied bombing raids, with other works of art. The painting was escorted to Vienna from Munich by Andrew Ritchie, chief of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFA&A) for Austria, who transported it by locking himself and the painting in a train compartment. The Americans presented the painting to the Austrian Government in late 1945 since the Czernin family were deemed to have sold it voluntarily, without undue force from Hitler. The Czernin family made several attempts to claim restitution, each time being rejected, although this played a role in securing an official certification of Hitler's death in 1956. In 1958, Vermeer's The Art of Painting was finally moved from temporary status into the permanent collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. A 1998 restitution law, which pertains to public institutions, bolstered the family's legal position, but the case was rejected again by the Austrian government in 2011. See also 100 Great Paintings Salvador Dalí refers to The Art of Painting in his own surrealistic painting The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used As a Table (1934). In Dalí's painting the image of Vermeer from The Art of Painting, although not true to the representation regarding Vermeer's clothes, is viewed from behind, re-created as a strange kind of table. In 1968, British artist Malcolm Morley painted an acrylic copy of The Art of Painting in his signature "super-realistic" style, using a gridding technique to scale it up to 105 x 87 inches (266.7 x 220.98 cm) raising questions of appropriation that influenced mid- to late-20th century art discourse. References History paintings by Johannes Vermeer Paintings in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum 17th-century allegorical paintings Allegorical paintings by Dutch artists 1660s paintings Paintings about painting Musical instruments in art Books in art Maps in art Cartography in the