The Rape of Europa The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War

by NICHOLAS, LYNN H.

• ISBN13: 9780679756866
• ISBN10: 0679756868
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-04-25
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award The cast of characters includes Hitler and Goering, Gertrude Stein and Marc Chagall--not to mention works by artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Pablo Picasso. And the story told in this superbly researched and suspenseful book is that of the Third Reich's war on European culture and the Allies' desperate effort to preserve it. From the Nazi purges of "Degenerate Art" and Goering's shopping sprees in occupied Paris to the perilous journey of theMona Lisafrom Paris and the painstaking reclamation of the priceless treasures of liberated Italy,The Rape of Europais a sweeping narrative of greed, philistinism, and heroism that combines superlative scholarship with a compelling drama. "Nicholas knows the art world as well as any military historian knows his battlefield.... Her work deserves the widest reading."--New York Times Book Review

Author Biography

Lynn H. Nicholas was born in New London. Connecticut.  She was educated in the United States, England, and Spain, and received her B.A. from Oxford University. After her return to the United States she worked for several years at the National Gallery of Art.  While living in Belgium in the early 1980s, she began research for this book, her first.  Ms. Nicholas and her husband live in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Prologue: They Had Four Years: Germany Before the War: The Nazi Art Purges	p. 3
Period of Adjustment: The Nazi Collectors Organize; Austria Provides, Europe Hides	p. 27
Eastern Orientations: Poland, 1939-1945	p. 57
Lives and Property: Invasion of the West; The Nazi Art Machine in Holland	p. 81
Lenity and Cruelty: Occupied France: Protection and Confiscation	p. 115
Business and Pleasure: France: The Art Market Flourishes; Nazi Kultur Withers	p. 153
Plus ca change: The Invasion of the Soviet Union	p. 185
Inch by Inch: The Launching of the Allied Protection Effort	p. 203
The Red-Hot Rake: Italy, 1943-1945	p. 229
Touch and Go: The Allies Take Over: Northern Europe, 1944-1945	p. 273
Ashes and Darkness: Treasure Hunts in the Ruined Reich, 1945	p. 327
Mixed Motives: The Temptation of Germany's Homeless Collections	p. 369
The Art of the Possible: Fifty Years of Restitution and Recovery	p. 407
Notes	p. 445
Bibliography	p. 467
Index	p. 477
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