Looted Art

Introduction

During the Second World War, Adolf Hitler mandated that other nations’ cultural property be obtained, often forcibly, for the greater good of the state. The Nazis targeted private Jewish collections, public museums and organizations deemed to be at odds with Nazi ideology, such as Freemasons. Their goals were both financial and cultural. Hitler wanted to enrich the Third Reich and its leaders with exquisite and culturally significant treasures, sell looted art that did not reflect the Reich’s ideals for foreign currency, and create the Führermuseum, envisioned as the cultural center of the world, in his hometown of Linz, Austria.

The plunder and looting of art and other treasures was not limited to the Third Reich, however. The Soviet and American armies also participated, the former more thoroughly and systematically, the latter at the level of individuals stealing for personal gain. Other Axis countries also looted private Jewish collections.

The Washington Conference of Holocaust Era Assets (1998), followed by the Terezin Declaration (2009) renewed efforts to restitute cultural goods to their rightful owners. As a result various national organizations were created and numerous laws passed. Information about looted art has increasingly moved online, including databases of individual works still missing or items with unknown provenance.

The following bibliography was compiled to guide readers to materials on looted art that are in the Library’s collection. It is not meant to be exhaustive. Annotations are provided to help the user determine the item’s focus, and call numbers for the Museum’s Library are given in parentheses following each citation. Those unable to visit might be able to find these works in a nearby public library or acquire them through interlibrary loan. Follow the “Find in a library near you” link in each citation and enter your zip code at the Open WorldCat search screen. The results of that search indicate all libraries in your area that own that particular title. Talk to your local librarian for assistance.

Background Information

• Akinsha, Konstantin, et al. Beautiful Loot: The Soviet Plunder of Europe’s Art Treasures. New York: Random House, 1995. (N 8795.3 .G3 A39 1995) [Find in a library near you]

  Chronicles the meticulous planning and organization involved in the Soviet Union’s wholesale confiscation of more than two and a half million European cultural treasures, including art objects, books, and archival documents, from the newly defeated Germans. Explores the discovery that numerous objects were never recovered and are still hidden in Russia. Includes illustrations, notes, a bibliography, and an index.

• Alford, Kenneth D. Nazi Plunder: Great Treasure Stories of World War II. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2001. (D 810 .A7 A44 2001) [Find in a library near you]

  Profiles 21 separate cases of looting and confiscation of art and other valuables during and immediately after the war. Highlights facts and theories of the whereabouts of these collections. Includes appendices, a bibliography, endnotes, illustrations, and an index.

• Alford, Kenneth D. The Spoils of World War II: The American Military’s Role in the Stealing of Europe’s Treasures. New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1994. (D 810 .A7 A37 1994) [Find in a library near you]

  Relates the story of the United States Army’s plunder of valuable art and artifacts following the liberation of Germany. Includes an appendix, notes, and an index, along with several black and white illustrations.

• Chamberlin, E. R. Loot!: The Heritage of Plunder. New York: Facts on File, 1983. (N 8795 .C41983) [Find in a library near you]

  Provides historical context for Hitler’s looting campaigns by reviewing the looting practices of ancient civilizations, third world countries, and Napoleon, who, like Hitler, appropriated cultural treasures for the greater glory of the state. Includes numerous illustrations, a bibliography, and an index.

• De Jaeger, Charles. The Linz File: Hitler’s Plunder of Europe’s Art. Exeter, England: Webb & Bower, 1981. (N 8795 .D35 1981) [Find in a library near you]

  Describes Hitler’s special mission to amass an enormous collection of the world’s greatest artworks with which to create the Führermuseum. Also relates the United States Army’s efforts to recover the works and make restitution. Includes a list of major works still missing, a bibliography, and an index.

• Feliciano, Hector. The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World’s Greatest Works of Art. New York: BasicBooks, 1997. (N 8795.3 .F8 F4613 1997) [Find in a library near you]

  Details Nazi Germany’s highly organized and systematic plunder of art objects, focusing on the confiscations of five large private art collections owned by Jewish families and art dealers in France. Provides reproductions of numerous looted art pieces and original documents seized from Schenker International Transport, a German company involved in moving stolen works of art. Also includes the text of an interview with Alain Versay regarding the Schloss collection, notes, and an index.

• Hickley, Catherine. The Munich Art Hoard: Hitler's Dealer and His Secret Legacy. London: Thames et Hudson, 2015. (N8795.3.E85 H53 2015) [Find in a library near you]

  Presents the history of the “Gurlitt Hoard” found in the apartment of the son of Hildebrand Gurlitt, an art dealer who worked for the Nazis. Traces the lives of the Gurlitt family and the acquisition of the family. Provides context on Nazi art looting and post-war restitution isses. Includes photographs, a Gurlitt family tree and an index.

• Nicholas, Lynn H. The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. (N 8795.3 .E85 N53 1995) [Find in a library near you]

  An extensively-researched work on the pillage, plunder, and often destruction of Europe’s greatest art treasures by the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, as well as the restitution of much of the property by American “Monuments officers.” Includes illustrations, a bibliography, notes, and an index.

• Petropoulos, Jonathan. Art as Politics in the Third Reich. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. (N 6868.5 .N37 P48 1996) [Find in a library near you]

  Traces the evolution of Nazi Germany’s cultural policy from the establishment of a cultural bureaucracy and the purge of art world undesirables to the plunder and confiscation of cultural property. Also examines the collections of some of Nazi Germany’s elite art collectors and their means of acquisition, as well as the importance of collecting within the National Socialist framework. Includes an appendix, notes, a bibliography, and an index.

• Petropoulos, Jonathan. The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. (N 6868.5 .N37 P4823 2000) [Find in a library near you]

  Evaluates the participation of prominent members of the German art world in the Third Reich’s cultural program of looting European and Jewish artworks during World War II. Devotes separate chapters to examining the roles of museum directors, dealers, journalists, and artists. Includes detailed notes, a bibliography, and an index.

• Roxan, David, and Ken Wanstall. The Rape of Art: The Story of Hitler’s Plunder of the Great Masterpieces of Europe. New York: Coward-McCann, 1965. (N 8795 .R76 1964) [Find in a library near you]

  Chronicles Hitler’s great plundering campaigns and his thwarted attempt to make Linz, Austria, his childhood home, the cultural center of the world, replete with museums, library, and theater. Also provides an account of the United States Army’s quest to locate the treasures and make restitution. Based on the now declassified O.S.S. Art Looting Investigation Unit-Consolidated Interrogation Rep. Includes illustrations and an index.

• Simon, Matila. The Battle of the Louvre: The Struggle to Save French Art in World War II. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1971. (N 8795 .S35 1971) [Find in a library near you]

  Details the secret and well-organized mission to save the Louvre’s famous and valuable artworks from Germans confiscation. Reviews the programs successes and failures, and describes the Nazi’s obsessive pursuit of these French cultural treasures. Includes twenty-six black and white illustrations, a bibliography, and an index.

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Catalogs and Provenance Research

Also see Web Resources.

• Fleckner, Uwe. “Marketing the defamed: on the contradictory use of provenances in the Third Reich.” In Provenance: An Alternative History of Art edited by Gail Feigenbaum and Inge J. Reist, 137-153. Los Angeles, Calif: Getty Research Institute, 2013. (N3999 .P76 2013) [Find in a library near you]

  Details how the Nazis used provenance of “degenerate art” for negative propaganda and to boost sale prices of works sold in Switzerland. Includes photographs and bibliographic references.

• Honan, William H. Treasure Hunt: A New York Times Reporter Tracks the Quedlinburg Hoard. New York: Fromm International, 1997. (N 7950 .A1 H66 1997) [Find in a library near you]

  Provides the author’s account of his role in tracking down valuable objects looted from an art repository in Germany by an American soldier after the war. Includes illustrations.

• Le Masne de Chermont, Isabelle and Laurence Sigal-Klagsbald. Looking for Owners: French Policy for Provenance Research, Restitution and Custody of Art Stolen in France during World War Two. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2008. (N 9165 .F7 L4 2008) [Find in a library near you]

  Reproduces images and provenance research of looted art from a 2008 exhibition in Paris. Each description includes background on the painting, how and when it was taken to Nazi Germany, and details on its return to France, and contact information to make a claim of ownership. Includes a chronology and an index; bilingual text in both English and French.

• Milosch, Jane C., Lynn H. Nicholas, and Megan M. Fontanella, ed. “Collections : a journal for museum and archives professionals : focus issue : provenance research in American institutions.” (N3999 .C65 2014) [Find in a library near you]

  Collects articles on resources, initiatives, case studies and opinion pieces about pro venance research of Nazi-looted art. Includes foreword, illustrations, introduction and bibliographic references.

• Morozzi, Luisa, and Rita Paris, editors. Treasures Untraced: An Inventory of the Italian Art Lost During the Second World War. Rome: Istituto poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1995. [Find in a library near you]

  Catalogs works of art and valuable items that were looted from Italy by the Nazis. Includes appendices, a bibliography, illustrations, and indexes.

• Mravik, László, editor. The “Sacco Di Budapest” and Depredation of Hungary, 1938-1949: Works of Art Missing from Hungary as a Result of the Second World War: Looted, Smuggled, Captured, Lost and Destroyed Art Works, Books, and Archival Documents: Preliminary and Provisional Catalog. Budapest: Hungarian National Gallery for the Joint Restitution Committee at the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Education, 1998. [Find in a library near you]

  Presents materials related to the pillage and destruction of art, books, and archival documents from Hungary during and immediately after World War II. Includes a chronology, illustrations, and primary source documents.

• Wechsler, Helen J., Teri Coate-Saal, and John Lukavic. Museum Policy and Procedures for Nazi-Era Issues. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 2001. (N 8795.3 .E85 M87 2001) [Find in a library near you]

  A guide for museums on Nazi-era issues as they pertain to collections and their provenance. Addresses matters relating to acquisitions, loans, existing collections, claims of ownership, and fiduciary responsibilities. Reprints in full the AAM Guidelines Concerning the Unlawful Appropriation of Objects during the Nazi Era. Also includes examples of museum documents and policies on these matters and a series of related appendices.

• Yeide, Nancy H., Konstantin Akinsha, and Amy L. Walsh, editors. The AAM Guide to Provenance Research. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 2001. (N 3999.Y45 2001) [Find in a library near you]

  Provides official American Association of Museums guidelines and strategies for conducting provenance research with special detail to Holocaust history and procedures. Appendices include bibliographies, biographies, profiles of dealers and auctions, photographs, and archival contact information as well as Nazi reference codes and names of Nazi art thieves.

Postwar Recovery

• Edsel, Robert M, and Bret Witter. The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History. 2013. (D810.A7 E23 2009) [Find in a library near you]

  Presents the history of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section, aka the Monuments Men, whose mission was to preserve European cultural heritage during the war and the recovery, identification and return postwar. Describes how the MFAA started, the museum and art history backgrounds of many members and their missions across Europe and North Africa. Provides information on their postwar activities including the establishment of collecting points in the American occupation zone. Includes brief biographies of MFAA members, illustrations, map, bibliographic references index.

• Lauterbach, Iris, and James J. Sheehan. The Central Collecting Point in Munich. A new beginning for the restitution and protection of art. Los Angeles: Getty Trust Publications, 2019. (N9165.G3 L3813 2018) [Find in a library near you]

  Documents the history of the Munich Central Collecting Point where recovered looted art was identified, restored and restituted. Describes the day-to-day operations, the resources used and created, the challenges faced by the Monuments, Fine Art and Archives section, and the political issues that arose. Ends with a description of activities after 1949 when Germans took over the work. Contains a brief history of plunder throughout history, extensive illustrations, introduction, bibliographic references and index.

• Perry, Victor. Stolen Art. Hewlett, NY: Gefen Publishing, 2000. (N 5280 .Y82 S586 2000) [Find in a library near you]

  Journalistic account of the author’s quest to locate lost artworks from the collection of Erich Chlomovitch, a Yugoslavian Jewish collector.

• Smyth, Craig Hugh. Repatriation of Art from the Collecting Point in Munich after World War II. Maarsen, The Hague: G. Schwartz/SDU, 1988. (N 8795 .S64 1988) [Find in a library near you]

  Provides the author’s account of his activities as the administrator of one of the largest looted art repositories in post-war Europe. Includes endnotes, illustrations, and primary source documents.

Restitution

• Baresel-Brand, Andrea. Verantwortung wahrnehmen: NS-Raubkunst - eine Herausforderung an Museen, Bibliotheken und Archive = Taking Responsibility: Nazi-looted Art- A Challenge for Museums, Libraries, and Archives. Magdeburg: Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste, 2009. (D 810 .A7 V47 2009) [Find in a library near you]

  Presents 17 papers delivered at a conference of the same name held in Berlin, December 2008. Examines issues related to restitution of cultural assets; provenance research; and compromises and resolutions to various claims. Each chapter is in both English and German, with Hebrew summaries and endnotes at the end.

• Campfens, Evelien. Fair and Just Solutions?: Alternatives to Litigation in Nazi-Looted Art Disputes: Status Quo and New Developments. The Hague: Eleven International Publishing, 2015. (K3791.A6 F35 2015) [Find in a library near you]

  Collected papers and proceedings from a 2012 conference on methods of handling claims without litigation. Explores how the restitution process has changed since the 1998 Washington Principles, different countries’ approaches, issues surrounding artworks in national collections and the future of international cooperation. Contains case studies, interviews with claimants, appendices of various laws, declarations and resolutions, biographies of the authors and index.

• Goodman, Simon. The Orpheus Clock: The Search for My Family's Art Treasures Stolen by the Nazis. 2016. (HG1552.G87 G66 2015) [Find in a library near you]

  Details the Guttmann/Goodman family’s multi-generational efforts to reclaim their stolen art collection from museums and private collections. Includes reproductions of looted works, a family tree, bibliographic references, index and appendix of recovered artwork.

• Hay, Bruce L. Nazi-looted Art and the Law: The American Cases. 2017. (KF1244 .H38 2017) [Find in a library near you]

  Uses case studies to explain American court cases brought by the victims of Nazis or their heirs. Explains in layman’s terms the legal principles and specific laws applied in each case. Includes introduction, conclusion, bibliographic references and index.

• Hopkinson, Christopher. Terezín Declaration-Ten Years Later: The Documentation, Identification and Restitution of the Cultural Assets of WWII Victims. 2019. (PDF)

  Proceedings of 2019 conference in Prague marking the 10th anniversary of the Terezin Declaration on Holocaust-Era Assets and Related Issues. Papers cover the assessment of the progress in the previous decade, issues surrounding restitution processes and provenance research, the fate of looted books, training provenance researchers and case studies of specific collections. Contains foreword, illustrations and bibliographic references.

• Kurtz, Michael J. America and the Return of Nazi Contraband: The Recovery of Europe’s Cultural Treasures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. (D 818 .K85 2006) [Find in a library near you]

  Details the history and development of art restitution policies and practices. Provides a history of Nazi looting and early efforts by the Allies to repatriate art, Cold War era restitution activities, and issues concerning Jewish patrimony. Includes appendices, a bibliography, glossary, footnotes, illustrations, and an index.

• Schnabel, Gunnar, and Monika Tatzkow. The Story of Street Scene: Restitution on Nazi Looted Art: Case and Controversy. Berlin: Proprietas, 2008. (ND 588.K47 A76 2008) [Find in a library near you]

  Examines the history of the painting, Street Scene, and the negotiations to return the painting to the rightful owners. Includes endnotes and acknowledgments.

• Trienens, Howard J. Landscape with Smokestacks: The Case of the Allegedly Plundered Degas. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2000. (KF 228 .G665 T75 2000) [Find in a library near you]

  Traces the history of a single painting from its creation in the 19th century through its restitution trial in the late 20th century. Includes endnotes.

Looted Books and Archives

• Fishman, David E., Mark Kupovetsky and Vladimir Kuzelenkov. Nazi-looted Jewish Archives in Moscow: A Guide to Jewish Historical and Cultural Collections in the Russian State Military Archive. Scranton: University of Scranton Press, 2011.

  Catalog and guide to Jewish archival collections originally looted by the Nazis that were later seized by the Soviet Army and sent to Moscow as trophies. Describes also Nazi party records and German government records seized by the Soviets. Divided into sections by country. Lacks authoritative historical essay. Includes introduction, illustrations and appendix of collections repatriated to their countries of origin.

• Gallas, Elisabeth, and Alex Skinner. A Mortuary of Books: The Rescue of Jewish Culture After the Holocaust. , 2019. (D804.3 .G3535 2019) [Find in a library near you]

  Examines the postwar history of Jewish library and archival collections. Describes history of the U.S. Army Offenbach Archival Depot. Discusses the negotiations around the final disposition of ownerless books and archives. Highlights the work of four major figures who worked on this issue. Includes introduction, conclusion, illustrations, bibliographic references and an index.

• Glickman, Mark. Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016. (Z675.J4 G55 2016) [Find in a library near you]

  Focuses on the Nazi looting of Jewish books from libraries and private collections. Gives background information on the different organizations and individuals who confiscated books and their reasons. Describes resistance to the destruction, the rescue of books and the post-war challenge of restitution leading to the creation of the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction organization. Includes introduction, afterword, illustrations, bibliographic references and an index.

• Rydell, Anders, and Henning Koch. The Book Thieves: The Nazi Looting of Europe's Libraries and the Race to Return a Literary Inheritance. New York: Penguin Books an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2018. (D810.L53 R94413 2017) [Find in a library near you]

  Describes the Nazi looting of libraries belongs to Jews, Communists, LGBT organizations and other Nazi opponents throughout occupied Europe. Discusses how the Nazis used these books as propaganda. Focuses on the postwar fates of these books and restitution efforts, including the author’s involvement in returning a book found in the Berlin Central Library to its rightful owner. Includes foreword, afterword, illustrations, bibliographic information and an index.

Film and Video

• Berge, Richard, Nicole Newnham, Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk, Robert M. Edsel, Joan Allen, and Lynn H. Nicholas. The Rape of Europa. Venice, Calif.: Video Service Corp, 2010. (DVD-772) [Find in a library near you] [Official website]

  Based on the book with the same title, describes the Nazis’ looting of art across Europe and the post-war discovery and restitution of them. Includes interviews and historic film footage.

• United States. National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration Symposium on Records and Research Relating to Holocaust-Era Assets 12/04/98. College Park, MD: The Archives, 1998. (Video Collection) [Find in a library near you]

  Recorded proceedings of a conference to investigate sources for research and writing on the topic of looted art.

Web Resources

• Claims Conference/WJRO Looted Art & Cultural Property Initiative

  Provides information on the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and World Jewish Restitution Organization’s projects regarding the return of looted Jewish cultural property. Includes Handbook on Judaica Provenance Research: Ceremonial Objects , Descriptive Catalogue of Looted Judaica , details on their advocacy, restitution and research and a list of suggested resources for research.

• ERR Project - Cultural Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg

  Provides access to resources and archival material about the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) a primary Nazi looting organization. Includes a database of the inventory cards from the Jeu de Paume in Paris, a guide to ERR records in multiple archives and a section on looted libraries. Joint project of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

• Galerie Heinemann Online

  Provides access to the digitized business records of the Jewish owned art dealer Galerie Heinemann, aryanized in 1939. Includes search tips and the history of the business.

• German Sales Catalogs, 1900-1945

  Describes project to document German art sales in the early 20th century by entering sales listings into the Getty Provenance Index and linking entries to the digitized catalogs. Project of the Getty Research Institute, Heidelberg University Library and the Kunstbibliothek—Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

• A Guide to Provenance Research at the Archives of American Art

  Portal for resources relating to World War II-era provenance research at the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art. Includes digitized records of art dealers, personal papers and oral histories of art dealers, Monuments Men and other participants.

• International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural Property

  Enables a single search across publicly searchable archival collection at participating institutions around the world. Hosted by the European Holocaust Research Initiative.

• Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project

  Aims to create a single object-level database of Jewish-owned cultural goods plundered by the Nazis and their allies by combining multiple datasets. Started pilot phase in 2020.

• The Central Registry of Information on Looted Cultural Property 1933-1945

  Web presence of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, an international non-profit organization. Provides information about ongoing efforts to track looted cultural artifacts from the Nazi era, database of missing cultural objects, database containing resources in individual countries, information for claimants or their heirs, annotated bibliographies on looted art, the art trade and related topics and an extensive list of online resources.

• TransCultAA

  Researches the transfer of cultural property during the 20th century in the Alpe-Adria region (parts of Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia.) Includes timeline, online exhibitions, maps and bibliographic references.

By Individual Country

• Commission for the Compensation of Victims of Spoliation

  French government agency responsible for the identification and restitution of looted cultural assets. Includes database of works reported as stolen, information on submitting a claim, resources for conducting research on art looted in France, and a bibliography.

• Site Rose-Valland - Musées Nationaux Récupération

  Contains searchable database of art and other cultural goods still in the possession of the French government. Includes information on private and institutional libraries looted by the Nazis. In French.

• German Lost Art Foundation

  Central contact point for Nazi looted art issues for materials currently held in German institutions. Includes the Lost Art Database which lists missing, restituted and located cultural items. Provides access to research findings on the Gurlitt Art Trove, information for victims and their heirs and listings for publications, conferences and research tools. Maintains Leitfaden "Provenienz Forschung" (Guidelines for Provenance Research- in German) has a separate extensive appendix of online databases and information resources about individual art dealers. Publishes results of research projects via Proveana (free registration required).

• Origins Unknown

  Contains database of looted art and other goods still in the Dutch government’s possession and artwork reported as missing by victims that has not been restituted. Includes photographs for the 93% of items and information about the Expert Center Restitution to aid claimants.

• Division of Looted Art - Polish Wartime Losses

  Polish government website listing moveable cultural property taken from the post-1945 borders of Poland. Includes information about restitution and exhibit of works that have been recovered.

Museum Web Resources

• Library: Bibliography on Asset Restitution and Indemnification

  Offers a list of books and additional resources concerning efforts toward restitution and reparation for Nazi policies and aggression. Addresses matters concerning Swiss banking, compensation for slave laborers, and general efforts toward compensation. Gathered and annotated by the Library staff at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

• Symposium: Confiscation of Jewish Property in Europe, 1933-1945: New Sources and Perspectives (PDF)

  The full program of the symposium hosted by the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on March 22, 2001, featuring streaming audio files of all twelve presentations. Examines the institutions charged with implementing confiscation policies, the manner in which Jewish assets were seized, and the perspectives of those whose property was confiscated. Also considers the possibilities for and barriers to future research.

Additional Resources

Subject Files

Ask at the reference desk to see the subject files labeled “Art, Looted” and “Art Thefts” containing newspaper and periodical articles.

Subject Headings

To search library catalogs or other electronic search tools for materials on looted art, use the following Library of Congress subject headings to retrieve the most relevant citations:

• Art–Collectors and collecting
• Art thefts
• Art treasures in war
• Lost works of art
• World War, 1939-1945–Art and the war
• World War, 1939-1945–Destruction and pillage

See all Bibliographies