The Lost Masters: WW II and the Looting of Europe's Treasurehouses [Hardcover]

Peter Harclerode (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2000

The difinitive current assessment of an on-going saga. It is a terrible indictment of greed and indolence.--The Financial Times

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This chronicle of the Nazi plunder of Europe's art treasuresAand the subsequent fate of those treasures in the hands of the victorious AlliesAis a vast, impressive catalogue of the greed, anger and heroism inspired by those works. Harclerode (Arnhem: A Tragedy of Errors) and Pittaway (a BBC journalist) do not shrink from the complexity of their subject. With an almost overwhelming attention to detail, they trace the elusive web of collaborators, opportunists and dealers who exploited the Third Reich's lust for prestigious trophies. Gripping vignettes and revelatory anecdotes illuminate the fates of specific works of art, including the outstanding story of four paratroopers who contrived to rescue the largest cache of stolen art sequestered by the Nazis; the ironic tale of how Reichsmarschall Hermann G?ring, perpetrator of countless war crimes, discovered that he had been the victim of a Vermeer forger; and the disturbing fact that the Nazis considered artists like Picasso and Van Gogh to be "degenerate," even as the German army was laying waste to a continent. According to Harclerode and Pittaway's analysis, hope for the recovery of the tens of thousands of plundered art treasures depends primarily on their current possessors' generosity and candor, qualities for which this book constitutes a persuasive plea. But they concede that the victims' quest for full restitution may remain unfulfilled. A thorough assessment of the pernicious actions of the Nazis, this book makes an important contribution to the effort to reverse the Third Reich's criminal legacy. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Writer/historian Harclerode and investigative journalist Pittaway have written an account of various aspects of the illegal seizure and sale of artworks from Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. Although then book as a whole is not a fluid narrative treatment, the individual chapters provide important detail about the restitution efforts and difficulties of surviving owners, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. The authors summarize the activities of the ERR (Einsatzstab Reichleiter Rosenberg), the Nazi agency responsible for appropriating these artworks, and the efforts of the Allies' MFAA (Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives) organization to recapture and redistribute them to their rightful owners. Also included are chapters dealing with the Russian seizure of German treasures, the pilfering of artwork by U.S. Army personnel, the culpability of neutrals such as Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal, and the recent Egon Schiele case involving the Museum of Modern Art. Some of this is already covered in Hector Feliciano's Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy To Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art (Basic Bks., 1998) and by Lynn Nicholas in her superb The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War (LJ 5/1/94). Recommended for public libraries, and academic art libraries.DJames Tasato Mellone, Queens Coll., CUNY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 402 pages
• Publisher: Welcome Rain Publishers; 1 edition (July 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566491657
• ISBN-13: 978-1566491655
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,725,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first U.S. publication of a 1999 English expose, February 22, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lost Masters: WW II and the Looting of Europe's Treasurehouses (Hardcover)

Hitler didn't limit himself to seizing political control in Europe, he embarked on a program to loot the continent's greatest art collection, and at war's end many of these relics disappeared. This is the first U.S. publication of a 1999 English expose which received critical acclaim, and provides an update on the looting of Europe and victims' attempts to reclaim the art works. Essential for any student of Nazi history.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nazi History, August 22, 2001

By 

Paul Glover (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lost Masters: WW II and the Looting of Europe's Treasurehouses (Hardcover)

An interesting account of the Looting of Europes Treasure Houses.