THE RAPE OF EUROPA: The Fate of...

THE RAPE OF EUROPA: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War by Lynn H. Nicholas (Vintage: $15.; 498 pp., illustrated) The Nazi conquest of Europe was followed by an unprecedented program of art theft: Museums, galleries and private collections were systematically looted for the personal collections of Hitler and Goering, and for the museums they planned to build in Germany. In accordance with Nazi ideology, German officials stole Old Masters and kitsch 19th-Century paintings; “degenerate” modern works were sold, traded or destroyed. Nicholas’ fascinating history details not only the Nazi thefts but the efforts of partisans in conquered countries to save their cultural patrimony, and the monumental problems of repatriating millions of stolen works after the war. As Nicholas notes, the restoration process continues, 50 years later: A missing cache of Durer drawings recently resurfaced in Russia.