Francis Henry Taylor, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, had this to say about looted art entering the United States in the Sunday edition of the New York Times on 19 September 1943: 

"Private individuals might operate in a 'black market' of antiquities in which no questions are asked, but public institutions disposing of trust funds could not very well connive in the artistic liquidation of the artistic patrimony of Europe and act as public receivers of stolen goods." 

Interesting use of language.

A year later, the US Treasury Department (TD 51072) issued a directive whose purpose was to set up a filter for cultural goods imported into the US. Those objects worth more than 5000 dollars (1944 value) would have to be registered under the aegis of the Bureau of Customs and importers would have to provide proof of "bona-fide" ownership.

In the summer of 1946, that directive was rescinded on advice from the Roberts Commission which exulted in the idea that there was no proof that looted art from Europe was streaming into the US. Since its members were gagging to resume business as usual, they persuaded the Treasury to remove America's barriers to all cultural goods and be done with it.

Question: Did the Roberts Commission members and Customs agents actually know what a looted object looked like? Did the culprit object bear unmistakable markings that betrayed the misdeeds that resulted in its misappropriation? Did the Treasury, Customs, State, US museums have lists of stolen objects? 

The answer to all of these questions is a resounding NO.

Ardelia Hall, the State Department's cultural officer who oversaw US restitution policy for the greater part of 17 years, admitted that there had only been:

22 "lots" of works of art imported into the US in 1945 and 102 in the first half of 1946 (no idea how many objects are contained in a "lot"). Despite that major increase from 1945 to 1946, the feeling was that the art market needed to breathe again, unimpinged by government regulations.

Looking back, Taylor was on to something although his self-righteous outrage was just that. No one listened, not even his own museum, not even himself in later years.

Sources: New York Times, 19 September 1943, cited in Ardelia Hall memo dated 25 September 1946 to her staff at the State Department. RG 59 Lot 62D4, Box 11, NACP.