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The treasures of Quedlinburg ... the Trojan gold ... the Amber Room. These fabled objects are only the tiny summit of an immense mountain of artifacts - artistic, religious, historic - that were sold, confiscated, stolen, dismembered, defaced, destroyed, or buried as Europe succumbed first to the greed and fury of the Nazis and then to the ravages of war. Now, in a riveting account brimming with tales of courage and sacrifice, of venality and beastliness, Lynn H. Nicholas meticulously reconstructs the full story of this act of cultural rape and its aftermath. In doing so, she offers a new perspective on the history of the Third Reich and of World War II. From the day Hitler came to power, art was a matter of highest priority to the Reich. He and other Nazis (especially Hermann Goering) were ravenous collectors, stopping at nothing to acquire paintings and sculpture, as well as coins, books, tapestries, jewels, furniture - everything. Their insatiable appetite (feared by the museum directors who sent their collections into hiding as war loomed) whipped the international art market into a frenzy of often sleazy dealing. When the German occupation of Poland, France, the Low Countries, and finally Italy began, a colossal wave of organized and casual pillage stripped entire countries of their heritage as works of art were subjected to confiscation, wanton destruction, concealment in damp mines, and perilous transport across combat zones.
Meanwhile, in Washington and London curators and scholars campaigned energetically to convince President Franklin Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and, most importantly, General Dwight Eisenhower to add the protection of art and edifices to the Allied invasion agenda. The landings in Italy and France, and the ultimate victory of the Allies, brought a dedicated corps of "Monuments officers" to the ravaged continent. On the front lines or immediately behind, they shored up bombed churches, cleaned the vandalized buildings and collections, and rescued great masterpieces such as the Ghent altarpiece from the mines. The Monuments officers spent six years locating and sorting huge repositories of treasure, and restoring their contents to museums and surviving owners. But much that was destroyed or stolen (by the Nazis and Soviets in organized looting and by individuals of all nations) has never been found. It is a story without an ending. More revelations can be expected in years to come. The facts behind these events will be clear and the human stories deeply moving to all who read Lynn H. Nicholas's impeccably researched, engagingly written account of the rapacity, horror, devotion, and heroism that characterized a unique and terrible era.… (mehr)
If you’ve ever watched “The Monuments Men” movie and wondered ‘How did all the art the Nazi’s looted end up in those mines?’ Well this is the book that answers that question.
But it covers so much more in its densely packed, detailed research driven pages of which The Monuments Men is just a small part.
While the Nazi art confiscation is well documented and told, this book also covers the less talked about destruction of art by both sides (the Allies being particularly destructive in Italy), the bargaining and using of art to buy things such as transit visas, the boom in the world-wide art trade as items previously held in museums or private collections came on the market. While the Nazis did steal a lot, they were also the most rapacious buyers of art and dealers, and forgers, around the world made fortunes off them.
I found it fascinating to read how certain parts of the German infrastructure would hinder the confiscation and transfer of looted art, such as the Army in Paris refusing to supply trucks, or people starting shell companies that could then claim certain collections were “German owned” and stop them from being moved.
There are also stories of ingenious methods used to hide art treasures (sometimes in plain sight), and not so clever (a member of the Rothchild family in Holland burying art under a sand-dune and not marking it or even writing down its location!)
Academic in tone it can be a bit of a slog to get through, but it’s full of interesting stories. ( )
Mixed feelings here. It is a topic I love but there is just SO VERY much detail that it is too much to process. Many of the threads and stories are fascinating, but the reader is swamped in detail. An editor, perhaps? It is a common problem amongst academics- I found all this information and, by George, you are going to read it! Whew. ( )
I liked this book a great deal. For one thing, the author remembered to include copious illustrations, which is a must for a book of this kind. For another, I thought the presentation was cogent and coherent, no easy task when you consider that the transactions involved in this matter -- the wholesale theft and destruction of artwork across Europe in World War II -- were meant to be covered up for one reason or another. A number of other books on this subject have come out ("The Book Thieves," "Nazi Plunder" and "The Lost Museum," to name three), but this one was one of the first, and deserves credit. Recommended. ( )
An epic chronicling the atrocities committed by Hitler and the Nazi Party against the art, history, and culture of Europe. Nicholas has painstakingly recorded with impeccable detail the looting of museums, confiscation of personal collections of Jewish citizens and fleeing refugees, and the burning and systematic destruction of countless works and artifacts deemed "degenerate" by Hitler and his Nazi underlings. The Rape of Europa simultaneously highlights the triumphant resistance efforts and quiet heroism of dedicated museum curators and their assistants, publishers secreting away manuscripts marked for destruction by fire, gallery owners hosting back room exhibitions of banned works, and countless civilians dedicated to the conservation of their cultural icons. Heralded as the "true story" behind the international efforts of the now-famous Monuments Men to spare historical sites and locate hidden and missing works, this is only a single component of this expansive text. A haunting masterpiece of WWII nonfiction. ( )
Very well written and engaging, for the most part. About one-third of the way through the book, I was struggling to keep focusing on the story--I think that was because the cast of characters is overwhelming, and it was hard to remember who these hundreds of people were. Once the Americans came on the scene it became easier to keep up with the action. I feel like there should be a web page devoted to this book which shows the connections between people. There are so many nasty villains among the Nazis and so many collaborators among the populaces conquered by the Nazis that it can become fairly sickening.
One comment I came across noted that one should not spend too much sympathy on the art looted and destroyed because of the horrifying numbers of people destroyed by the Nazis. I agree with that. It is important to not lose sight of the genocide. One thing I feel helps me keep perspective is that there are survivors (a few) and their descendants (many more) who have still not been reunited with family artwork or compensated for the loss of their possessions.
This book in particular has been fundamental in shining a much-needed light on the countries like Switzerland and Austria in particular which have not made restitution of artwork to the descendants of the original owners. If only for that, the author of this book deserves our thanks. ( )
The treasures of Quedlinburg ... the Trojan gold ... the Amber Room. These fabled objects are only the tiny summit of an immense mountain of artifacts - artistic, religious, historic - that were sold, confiscated, stolen, dismembered, defaced, destroyed, or buried as Europe succumbed first to the greed and fury of the Nazis and then to the ravages of war. Now, in a riveting account brimming with tales of courage and sacrifice, of venality and beastliness, Lynn H. Nicholas meticulously reconstructs the full story of this act of cultural rape and its aftermath. In doing so, she offers a new perspective on the history of the Third Reich and of World War II. From the day Hitler came to power, art was a matter of highest priority to the Reich. He and other Nazis (especially Hermann Goering) were ravenous collectors, stopping at nothing to acquire paintings and sculpture, as well as coins, books, tapestries, jewels, furniture - everything. Their insatiable appetite (feared by the museum directors who sent their collections into hiding as war loomed) whipped the international art market into a frenzy of often sleazy dealing. When the German occupation of Poland, France, the Low Countries, and finally Italy began, a colossal wave of organized and casual pillage stripped entire countries of their heritage as works of art were subjected to confiscation, wanton destruction, concealment in damp mines, and perilous transport across combat zones.
Meanwhile, in Washington and London curators and scholars campaigned energetically to convince President Franklin Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and, most importantly, General Dwight Eisenhower to add the protection of art and edifices to the Allied invasion agenda. The landings in Italy and France, and the ultimate victory of the Allies, brought a dedicated corps of "Monuments officers" to the ravaged continent. On the front lines or immediately behind, they shored up bombed churches, cleaned the vandalized buildings and collections, and rescued great masterpieces such as the Ghent altarpiece from the mines. The Monuments officers spent six years locating and sorting huge repositories of treasure, and restoring their contents to museums and surviving owners. But much that was destroyed or stolen (by the Nazis and Soviets in organized looting and by individuals of all nations) has never been found. It is a story without an ending. More revelations can be expected in years to come. The facts behind these events will be clear and the human stories deeply moving to all who read Lynn H. Nicholas's impeccably researched, engagingly written account of the rapacity, horror, devotion, and heroism that characterized a unique and terrible era.
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But it covers so much more in its densely packed, detailed research driven pages of which The Monuments Men is just a small part.
While the Nazi art confiscation is well documented and told, this book also covers the less talked about destruction of art by both sides (the Allies being particularly destructive in Italy), the bargaining and using of art to buy things such as transit visas, the boom in the world-wide art trade as items previously held in museums or private collections came on the market. While the Nazis did steal a lot, they were also the most rapacious buyers of art and dealers, and forgers, around the world made fortunes off them.
I found it fascinating to read how certain parts of the German infrastructure would hinder the confiscation and transfer of looted art, such as the Army in Paris refusing to supply trucks, or people starting shell companies that could then claim certain collections were “German owned” and stop them from being moved.
There are also stories of ingenious methods used to hide art treasures (sometimes in plain sight), and not so clever (a member of the Rothchild family in Holland burying art under a sand-dune and not marking it or even writing down its location!)
Academic in tone it can be a bit of a slog to get through, but it’s full of interesting stories. (