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V15 2012 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 15, Number 12, March 18, 2012, Article 15

QUIZ ANSWER: MANSHIP'S KULTUR IN BELGIUM MEDAL

Last week I asked if anyone could tell us more about this medal. -Editor

Foe of Free People medal

Richard Jewell writes:

The medal you asked to be identified is Paul Manship's infamous "Kultur in Belgium" 1918, produced by Medallic Art Company. It is bronze, 66.2mm and basically it was Manship's response to the many satirical WWI medals of German medalist Karl Goetz.

The obverse has a bust of the Kaiser with a necklace of skulls with a rifle with bayonet in front of him. The legend "THE FOE OF FREE PEOPLES" and in the cartouche "HIS ROSARY".

The reverse depicts a German soldier abducting a helpless Belgian woman with her child on the ground beneath her. Legend :"KULTUR IN BELGIUM" below that "MURDER PILLAGE"

Edwin Murtha's book on Paul Manship is an excellent source for the majority of Manship's sculptures and medals.

Joe Levine forwarded this description:

MANSHIP'S KULTUR IN BELGIUM MEDAL, 1918. Murtha 103; Baxter 365. 66.2mm. Bronze. Paul Manship, Sc. (MACO).. The obverse bears a bust of the Kaiser, who wears a necklace of skulls from which is suspended an iron cross. The surrounding legend reads: THE FOE OF FREE PEOPLES. HIS ROSARY. On the reverse, a German soldier is abducting a helpless woman while her child lies on the ground. KULTUR IN BELGIUM - MURDER PILLAGE.

A grotesque medal which Baxter states was the Amrican answer to the German sculptor Karl Goetz/s satirical war medals. The June, 1918 issue of the American Magazine of Arts reported, “In some of the shop windows on Fifth Avenue, New York, is now to be seen a bronze medal designed and executed by Paul Manship representing the outrages perpetrated by the German army upon women and children in invaded territory, particularly in Belgium. This is offered for sale at $10.00 a piece and puts into permanent form those things which if possible should not be remembered, but if remembered not visualized.”

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: FEATURED WEB PAGE: LE MONETE SATIRICHE (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v15n11a24.html)

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Wayne Homren, Editor

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