“The organized theft of fine art by Nazi Germany has captivated worldwide attention in the last twenty years. As much as any other topic arising out of World War Two, stolen art has proven to be an issue that simply will not go away. Newly found works of art pit survivors and their heirs against museums, foreign nations, and even their own family members. These stories are enduring because they speak to one of the core tragedies of the Nazi era: how a nation at the pinnacle of fine art and culture spawned a legalized culture of theft and plunder. A Tragic Fate is the first book to address comprehensively the legal and ethical rules that have dictated the results of restitution claims between competing claimants to the same works of art. It provides a history of Art and Culture in German-occupied Europe, an introduction to the most significant collections in Europe to be targeted by the Nazis, and a narrative of the efforts to reclaim looted artwork in the decades following the Holocaust through profiles of some of the art world’s most famous and influential restitution cases.”

In the autumn of 2006, a controversy exploded in Germany about the restitution of the expressionist masterpiece  ‘Street Scene’ by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.  The painting had been seized from the great expressionist collection of the late Alfred Hess, a German shoe magnate.  Found in the collection of Berlin’s Brücke Museum, it was reclaimed by his grand-daughter and returned to her. The painting’s return and subsequent sale was widely criticized in Germany.  Some suggested that the claim was not legitimate, others that it was a ‘betrayal of the German nation’, allowed only because Germans were ‘proud of their guilt’.  Some in Germany suggested the claim was motivated purely by greed, that it represented a capitulation to profit-seeking American lawyers and their Jewish clients.  Ludwig von Pufendorf, director of the Brücke Museum Foundation, talked of ‘a business’ that had ‘nothing to do’ with moral restitution.  Such scarcely concealed antisemitic slurs provoked great concern.  In this book, the authors, Gunnar Schnabel and Monika Tatzkow, who spent a year independently researching the case, tell the story of the painting, of the Hess family and of the two year battle over the painting’s return.

“By the end of World War II an estimated one million artworks and 2.5 million books had been seized from their owners by Nazi forces; many were destroyed. The artworks and cultural artifacts that survived have traumatic, layered histories. This book traces the biographies of these objects—including paintings, sculpture, and Judaica—their rescue in the aftermath of the war, and their afterlives in museums and private collections and in our cultural understanding. In examining how this history affects the way we view these works, scholars discuss the moral and aesthetic implications of maintaining the association between the works and their place within the brutality of the Holocaust—or, conversely, the implications of ignoring this history.”

“Alice Urbach had her own cooking school in Vienna, but in 1938 she was forced to flee to England, like so many others. Her younger son was imprisoned in Dachau, and her older son, having emigrated to the United States, became an intelligence officer in the struggle against the Nazis. Returning to the ruins of Vienna in the late 1940s, she discovers that her bestselling cookbook has been published under someone else’s name. Now, eighty years later, the historian Karina Urbach – Alice’s granddaughter – sets out to uncover the truth behind the stolen cookbook, and tells the story of a family torn apart by the Nazi regime, of a woman who, with her unwavering passion for cooking, survived the horror and losses of the Holocaust to begin a new life in America.”

“In this well-researched, clear-eyed assessment of art’s relationship to the war that ‘has left the darkest and most indelible mark on modern society,’ Bohm-Duchen (After Auschwitz) presents a sobering overview of the official and nonofficial fine art produced in warring nations: Spain (with the civil war treated as a prologue to WWII), England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, America, France, Italy, the Soviet Union, Germany, China, and Japan…”

At the end of the twentieth century, the world seemed to rediscover Holocaust survivors. Ceremonies commemorating the 50th anniversary of World War II-era events offered occasions for reflection about the war, its heroes, and its victims. In the US, broad interest in the Holocaust was sparked by two cultural phenomena: the 1993 opening of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the film Schindler’s List. The collapse of communism, the opening of archives in eastern Europe, and the approach of the millennium-and with it a desire to ‘clean the slate’-also sparked a series of confrontations with the past. Among those confrontations was an extraordinary focus on the material losses and injuries suffered by Nazi victims. Class-action lawsuits filed in American courts against European governments and enterprises, improvised commissions, national historical reviews, and international conferences attempted, at century’s end, to deal with the material, historical, legal, and moral issues stemming from the Holocaust. These initiatives built on groundwork laid in 1951, when Israel and an ad hoc consortium of voluntary Jewish organizations received an invitation to negotiate with West Germany for ‘moral and material amends’ for Nazi-era damages. The consortium became the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (known as the Claims Conference).

The military history of the 20th century is stored in the art collection of the weapons manufacturer Emil G. Bührle. War material exports to Nazi Germany and the hotspots of the Cold War made him the richest Swiss. Equipped with inexhaustible resources, he bought works of art that were brought onto the art market by plundering and expelling Jewish collectors and gallery owners. For decades his collection lay dormant in a private museum and served to enhance the reputation of the Bührle family. Now it is intended to enhance the city as a cultural metropolis in the new Kunsthaus Zurich building. At least that is the hope of a coalition of various actors from politics, business and the museum world.

This book accompanies the first major museum exhibition devoted to a reconstruction of the infamous Nazi display of modern art since the presentation originated by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1991. During the Nazi regime in Germany, “degenerate art” was the official term for much of the most important modern art of the day. “Degenerate art” was defined by the Nazi regime as artwork that was not in line with the National Socialists’ ideas of beauty. Their condemnation extended to works in nearly every major art movement: Expressionism, Dada, New Objectivity, Surrealism, Cubism, and Fauvism. Banned artists included Max Beckmann, Paul Klee, and Oskar Kokoschka. Richly illustrated, Degenerate Art elucidates the historical and intellectual context of the notorious exhibition in Munich in 1937, which spurred the attack on modern art. The book contains reflections on the genesis and evolution of the term “degenerate art” and details of the National Socialist policy on art. Art works from the exhibition Degenerate Art are compared to works of art from The Great German Art Exhibition, which was held at the same time and displayed the works of officially approved artists. The book also presents the after-effects of the attack on modernism that are felt even today.

The art dealer Max Stern (1904-1986) took over the Stern Gallery founded by his father on Königsallee in Düsseldorf in 1934. Due to his Jewish heritage, he was denied admission to the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts in 1935, thus preventing him from continuing the esteemed art business. By the end of 1937, the art historian was forced to liquidate his gallery. Shortly after, Stern fled via Paris to London and then further to Canada in 1941, seeking exile. In Canada, he made a fresh start and became one of the country’s most prominent art dealers. This publication now pays tribute to the life of this extraordinary art dealer and his family in Germany for the first time.”

“The significant yet nearly forgotten German-Jewish museum curator and art collector Curt Glaser (1879–1943) was forced into emigration by the National Socialists. In 1933, he sold the majority of his art collection in Berlin. The Kunstmuseum Basel reached an internationally recognized “best practice” agreement with Glaser’s heirs regarding the whereabouts of works once in his possession. In honor of this occasion, the museum is showcasing Glaser’s contributions in an exhibition. The catalog provides a richly illustrated glimpse into Glaser’s captivating collection, featuring works by Edvard Munch, Max Beckmann, and Henri Matisse. Essays delve into new research on the patron of modern art and the collection of modern art, contextualizing his exemplary fate within contemporary discussions surrounding former Jewish art holdings in public museums.”

“Artworks seized during the Nazi era or sold under duress are supposed to be returned to their original owners or their heirs according to the “Washington Declaration” of 1998. However, clear legal regulations are still lacking in Germany, and the debate on looted art and restitution continues to resurface. The recent controversy surrounding the so-called Schwabing Art Trove ignited fierce discussions, with more cases and revelations expected to follow. The contributors to this anthology aim to bring a level-headed perspective to the debate. They offer suggestions on how to balance the claims of heirs with the interests of current owners. Topics range from considerations of the restitution debate in German media to specific aspects of restitution in art trade, museums, libraries, and churches, culminating in a comparative assessment that extends to Austria and Switzerland.”

“This book aims to give an overview of the current status quo in the field, both in countries where special committees have been installed and beyond. Through contributions from leading experts and a discussion amongst stakeholders it explores a way to move forward, a makes a case for international cooperation and neutral and transparent procedures for solving ownership issues.”

The Anhaltische Gemaldegalerie Dessau, founded in 1927, with its important holdings of German, Flemish and Dutch paintings, had only existed for twelve years when the Second World War began. After the drastic losses of works of classical modernism and the Bauhaus through their confiscation as “degenerate art” in 1937, losses of a much greater extent followed due to the war events, including works by Albrecht Durer, Lucas Cranach the Elder. A., Pieter Brueghels d. J. They were destroyed, stolen or transported to the storage facility at Solvayhall near Bernburg. The Palais Reina, the home of the Dessau Painting Gallery in the center of the city, was destroyed in the air raid on May 28, 1944. This volume presents the results of many years of research into the war losses of paintings from the Anhaltische Gemaldegalerie. For the first time, it comprehensively deals with the security and storage measures during the war in the context of National Socialist art protection and the central orders, as well as the fate of the works of art at the end of the war. The return of three paintings stolen from storage in Solvayhall in 2015 – 70 years after the end of the war – shows how relevant the issue still is.

A scrupulous account of Hitler’s abiding obsession with art and Germany’s cultural patrimony, the book reveals the fate of looted works and tells the definitive story of art in the Third Reich and Germany’s ongoing struggle to right the wrongs of the past.

While Nazi plundering of art has returned to the headlines in recent years, their thievery was far from being limited to artworks. From 1942 onwards, ordinary Parisian Jews were robbed of toys, saucepans, furniture, sheets and so on. Witnessing the Robbing of the Jews tells how this vast enterprise of plunder was implemented in the streets of Paris by analyzing images found in the Federal Archives of Koblenz.

“The publication examines the current restitution practices regarding “Nazi-looted art” 25 years after the publication of the “Joint Declaration,” through which the Federal Republic of Germany committed to the Washington Principles of 1998. The foundational texts and numerous decisions, particularly the recommendations of the Advisory Commission, are analyzed and systematized to illustrate the developments thus far. For the first time, the author juxtaposes these with their historical predecessors, the Allied restitution laws of 1947/49 and the accompanying jurisprudence. From this comparison, she formulates specific proposals for improving the “guidelines,” thus making a significant contribution to the ongoing restitution debate.”

“From the Nazi purges of “Degenerate Art” and Goering’s shopping sprees in occupied Paris to the perilous journey of the Mona Lisa from Paris and the painstaking reclamation of the priceless treasures of liberated Italy, The Rape of Europa is a sweeping narrative of greed, philistinism, and heroism that combines superlative scholarship with a compelling drama.”

Simon Goodman’s grandparents came from German-Jewish banking dynasties and perished in concentration camps. And that’s almost all he knew about them—his father rarely spoke of their family history or heritage. But when he passed away, and Simon received his father’s old papers, a story began to emerge. This is the true story of one man’s quest to reclaim what the Nazis stole from his family, their beloved art collection, and to restore their legacy.

This book rushes to deliver the biography of Cornelius Gurlitt. From the editors: “When Cornelius Gurlitts trove became public in November 2013, it caused a worldwide media sensation. Catherine Hickley has delved into archives and conducted dozens of interviews to uncover the story behind the headlines. Her book illuminates a dark period of German history, untangling a web of deceit and silence that has prevented the heirs of Jewish collectors from recovering art stolen from their families more than seven decades ago by the Nazis. Hickley recounts the shady history of the Gurlitt hoard and brings its story right up to date, as 21st-century politicians and lawyers puzzle over the inadequacies of a legal framework that to this day falls short in securing justice for the heirs of those robbed by the Nazis.”

Between 1939 and 1944, as the Nazis overran Europe, they were also quietly conducting another type of pillage. The Lost Museum tells the story of the Jewish art collectors and gallery owners in France who were stripped of rare works by artists such as Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas, Cézanne, and Picasso. Before they were through, the Nazis had taken more than 20,000 paintings, sculptures, and drawings from France.The Lost Museum explores the Nazis’ systematic confiscation of these artworks, focusing on the private collections of five families: Rothschild, Rosenberg, Bernheim-Jeune, David-Weill, and Schloss. The book is filled with private family photos of this art, some of which has never before been seen by the public, and it traces the fate of these works as they passed through the hands of top German officials, unscrupulous art dealers, and unwitting auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s.

Medieval art treasures seized by the Nazis go missing at the end of World War II. Were they destroyed in the chaos of the final battles? Or were these thousand-year-old masterpieces stolen by advancing American troops? For over forty years, the mystery remained unsolved. A true detective story, “The Liberators” follows a dogged German art detective through the New York art world and military archives to the unlikeliest of destinations: a small town on the Texas prairie. Featuring interviews with Willi Korte (Portrait of Wally) and Texas attorney Dick DeGuerin, the film raises intriguing questions as to the motivations of the art thief and the whereabouts of the items that, to this day.

Described as a “riveting social history; an illuminating and haunting look at turn-of-the-century Vienna; a brilliant portrait of the evolution of a painter; a masterfully told tale of suspense. And at the heart of it, the Lady in Gold–the shimmering painting, and its equally irresistible subject, the fate of each forever intertwined.”

In the years between 1870 and the end of World War II, a number of prominent French Jews—pillars of an embattled community—invested their fortunes in France’s cultural artifacts, sacrificed their sons to the country’s army, and were ultimately rewarded by seeing their collections plundered and their families deported to Nazi concentration camps. In this book, James McAuley explores the central role that art and material culture played in the assimilation and identity of French Jews in the fin de siècle. Weaving together narratives of various figures, some familiar from the works of Marcel Proust and the diaries of Jules and Edmond Goncourt—the Camondos, the Rothschilds, the Ephrussis, the Cahens d’Anvers—McAuley shows how Jewish art collectors contended with a powerful strain of anti-Semitism: they were often accused of “invading” France’s cultural patrimony. The collections these families left behind—many ultimately donated to the French state—were their response, tragic attempts to celebrate a nation that later betrayed them.

A story of the author’s life journey who sought to rediscover her Polish-Jewish great-grandfather’s paintings lost during World War II. From the publishers: Spanning three decades of Elizabeth’s life and three generations of her family, this touching memoir is a compelling narrative of the richness of one man’s art, the devastation of war, and one woman’s unexpected path to healing.

“When Nazis looked to flee Europe with stolen art, gems, and gold in tow, certain “neutral” countries were all too willing to assist them. Their escape routes were diverse: Sweden and Switzerland boasted proximity, banking, and industrial closeness, while Spain and Portugal offered an inviting Atlantic coastline and shipping routes to South America. And in various ways, each of these so-called neutral nations welcomed the Nazi escapees, along with the clandestine wealth they carried. Cashing Out tells the riveting history of the race to intercept the stolen assets before they disappeared, and before the will to punish Germany was replaced by the political considerations of the fast-approaching Cold War.”

Holocaust Restitution is the first volume to present the Holocaust restitution movement directly from the viewpoints of the various parties involved in the campaigns and settlements. Now that the Holocaust restitution claims are closed, this work enjoys the benefits of hindsight to provide a definitive assessment of the movement.

From lawyers and State Department officials to survivors and heads of key institutes involved in the negotiations, the volume brings together the central players in the Holocaust restitution movement, both pro and con. The volume examines the claims against European banks and against Germany and Austria relating to forced labor, insurance claims, and looted art claims. It considers their significance, their legacy, and the moral issues involved in seeking and receiving restitution.

German occupation, the art market flourished. Goods are flocking, some of them coming from spoliations of Jewish families. Emmanuelle Polack draws a precise picture of the art market under the Occupation, unfolding an impressive gallery of protagonists – merchants, auctioneers, antique dealers, experts, brokers, buyers, and curators.

Museums in Israel After the Holocaust explores the influence of the traumatic events of the Holocaust on the formation of a cultural heritage policy during the foundational years of the State of Israel. Based on primary research, the book offers a new understanding of cultural practices after the Second World War, while analyzing the role of key Jewish cultural representatives who shaped museum collections that emerged during this period. The book investigates the ways Israel has dealt with the complicated history of “heirless” Jewish cultural objects and questions of ownership, by providing a detailed examination of the process of allocation of “heirless” Jewish cultural property handled by two American-Jewish organizations: the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization (JRSO) and the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction (JCR) in the immediate years following the Second World War. The book takes a material culture approach, which explores the meanings and values attached to an object over the course of time and during its transition between different owners.

From the publisher: “A distinguished group of scholars from Germany, Israel and right across the United States are brought together in Nazi Law to investigate the ways in which Hitler and the Nazis used the law as a weapon, mainly against the Jews, to establish and progress their master plan for German society.”

When we look at the artworks on display in museums, there is always a real possibility that some of these objects once belonged to victims of the Nazis – a possibility that has remained unacknowledged for far too long. Countless artworks were seized or forcibly sold, with many ending up in museum collections around the world, even in countries which actively fought to defeat Nazi Germany. Nazi-Era Provenance of Museum Collections equips readers with the knowledge and strategies essential for confronting the shadow of the Nazi past in museum collections. Jacques Schuhmacher provides the vital historical orientation required to understand the Nazis’ complex campaign of systematic dispossession and extermination and highlights the current environment in which museum-based Nazi-era provenance research takes place.

This book offers a clear, accessible account of the American litigation over the restitution of works of art taken from Jewish families during the Holocaust. For the past two decades, the courts of the United States have been an arena of conflict over this issue that has recently captured widespread public attention. In a series of cases, survivors and heirs have come forward to claim artworks in public and private collections around the world, asserting that they were seized by the Nazis or were sold under duress by owners desperate to escape occupied countries. Spanning two continents and three-quarters of a century, the cases confront the courts with complex problems of domestic and international law, clashes among the laws of different jurisdictions, factual uncertainties about the movements of art during and after the war, and the persistent question whether restitution claims have been extinguished by the passage of time.

Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it. It was a sophisticated and shockingly well-funded campaign to undermine democratic institutions, promote antisemitism, and destroy citizens’ confidence in their elected leaders, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the U.S. government and installing authoritarian rule.

Ed. Peter Wehrle

This anthology explores the world of provenance research in the art trade context, shedding light on a subject that has largely operated in the shadows. Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the “Washington Principles” guiding the handling of Nazi-looted art, the collection, curated by Munich’s Ketterer Kunst auction house, compiles essays from distinguished authors in science, museums, and institutions, along with concrete case studies from provenance researchers in the art trade. The collection offers insights into the relationship between the art trade and scholarly endeavors. It emphasizes the significance of transparency, cooperation, and a shared goal in the ongoing pursuit of understanding and addressing the historical context of art collections as well as the individuals involved in their acquisition. 

The destruction of cultural monuments and the looting of museums were part of the war of extermination that Nazi Germany waged in the Soviet Union. Hundreds of thousands of objects are still missing today and many questions remain unanswered. And yet there is largely a lack of understanding in Germany about the immense destruction and losses of Russian cultural assets in the Second World War. For the first time, this book describes the Nazi art theft from a Russian and German perspective using detailed case studies. The Tsar’s locksmiths near St. Petersburg as well as the cities of Pskov and Novgorod are considered. A look at individual Russian museums makes it possible to tell a history of art during the war. Newly developed source material provides authentic insights into the war. This brings to the fore the people who were responsible for art protection and looting on the Nazi side and for saving the art collections on the Soviet side.

Looted gold from Germany: The “gold hub” Switzerland in the Second World War.

The Thirteenth Heidelberg Art Law Conference’s proceedings encapsulate a comprehensive exploration of critical issues surrounding restitution law, cultural heritage protection, and provenance research, all under the overarching theme of “Looted Art and Restitution.” Delving into fundamental questions within the realms of art and legal studies, this book presents a diverse array of topics, from the intersection of art collecting and legal frameworks to the complexities of provenance research in uncovering historical truths.

“Salt Mines and Castles, originally published in 1946, is a first-hand account of the work of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section of U.S. Forces, European Theatre (MFA&A), immediately following the end of World War II in 1945.”

Already 12 years old but so fresh and engaging, this book is a family memoir by British ceramicist Edmund de Waal. De Waal tells the story of his family, the Ephrussi, once a very wealthy European Jewish banking dynasty, centered in Odessa, Vienna, and Paris, and peers of the Rothschild family. The hare with amber eyes and many other netsukes in the De Waal story is currently on display in NY at the Jewish Museum.

An illustrated volume features records of the 1995 international symposium among government representatives, curators, archaeologists, and historians dealing with the disputed ownership of the vast cultural property stolen or lost during World War II.

“Edsel…clearly presents the war in Italy as a battle not just to occupy the land but also to preserve the country’s culture. In urgent and precise prose, he puts the reader in the cockpit, the foxhole, and the cramped offices of those charged with saving the artwork. Most of the pilfering and destruction of art treasures was done by the Nazis, of course, but Edsel points out that the Allies were not blameless, either. This is a must-read for WWII buffs and anyone interested in the fight for art history.”