APPENDIX SEVEN
FOR FURTHER READING
Selected Books in English About Art Looting and Recovery
Looting and Recovery in Europe during WW II
1994 The Rape of Europa, Lynn Nicholas. The first authoritative, scholarly analysis of the fate of Europe’s treasures in World War II. The 2006 documentary film by the same title, first introduced the story of the monuments men to the TV public.
1995 The Lost Museum, Hector Feliciano. A detailed exploration of the systematic confiscation of works of art by the Nazis from Jewish collectors and dealers, particularly in Paris.
1997 The Spoils of War, edited by Elizabeth Simpson. Presents an extensive transcript of proceedings at a ground-breaking international symposium held at the Bard Graduate Center in 1995 where U.S. and Russian monuments men and women first met one another. It includes an appendix containing 17 of the key legal documents governing the protection and return of cultural property.
2000 The Faustian Bargain, Jonathan Petropoulos. The author reviews the careers of leading German museum directors, dealers, journalists, art historians, and artists, and traces their deals with the devil through the Nazi period and beyond.
2000 Nazi Plunder, Kenneth D. Alford. Presents 21 illustrated chapters describing looting by Nazis and Allies alike, including more details about the Crown of Saint Stephen (see page XX), the theft of the Hesse Crown Jewels (see page XX), the “missing Memling” (see page XX) and Heinrich Hoffman’s photograph collection (see page XX).
2006 Rescuing Da Vinci, Robert M. Edsel. This coffee-table-size and fully illustrated book is the companion book to the TV documentary The Rape of Europa.
2009 The Monuments Men, Robert M. Edsel. The narrative on which the movie of the same name is based.
2009 Beyond the Dreams of Avarice: The Hermann Goering Collection, Nancy H. Yeide. A comprehensive catalogue of the Goering collection with numerous illustrations and extensive explanatory materials.
2009 The Venus Fixers, Ilaria Dagnini Brey. Documents the work of the monuments men in Italy.
2010 Hitler’s Holy Relics, Sidney D. Kirkpatrick. The fascinating tale of the quest of one monuments man, Walter Horn, to recover the purported mystical crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire.
2013 Saving Italy, Robert M. Edsel. A more recent account of the work of the monuments men in Italy.
2013 Rose Valland: Resistance at the Museum, by Corinne Bouchoux. The story of the heroine of the French art resistance, portrayed as Claire Simone in the 2014 movie The Monuments Men, originally retold in French from her partial autobiography and other sources.
2014 Saving Mona Lisa: The Battle to Protect the Louvre and Its Treasures from the Nazis, Gerri Chanel. A detailed account of the evacuation of the Louvre under Jacques Jaujard and his entire staff’s efforts to protect its contents from damage and theft, including an explanation of the connections between the museum and the French resistance.
2015 Hitler’s Art Thief: Hildebrand Gurlitt, the Nazis and the Looting of Europe’s Treasures, Susan Ronald. The first book-length account in English of the Gurlitt story, including a prologue recounting the author’s glimpse inside the vault of a Swiss private bank.
2015 The Munich Art Hoard: Hitler’s Dealer and His Secret Legacy, Catherine Hickley. The second book on the same topic, with less emphasis on German history and more detailed art information.
2016 The Devil’s Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich, Robert K. Wittman. A new story about discovery of the lost diary of Alfred Rosenberg, the “philosopher” of the Third Reich, who was also head of Hitler’s primary art looting unit, known as the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg or ERR.
2018 The Art of Curating, Paul J. Sachs and the Museum Course at Harvard, Sally Anne Duncan and Andrew McClellan. This book tells the story of the escapee from his family’s Wall Street firm who trained and inspired a generation of museum curators and directors, including 15 of the best-known Monuments Men.
2019 The Central Collecting Point in Munich, Iris Lauterbach. Translated from the German, with a new introduction by James J. Sheehan, this book documents the efforts of the Monuments Men to return looted art.
2020 The Berlin Masterpieces in America: Paintings, Politics, and the Monuments Men. Peter Jonathan Bell and Kristi A. Nelson. The full story of the exhibition of 202 paintings from the Wiesbaden Collecting Point in 14 U.S. cities in 1948 and 1949, including a new article by Nancy Yeide on the “what and how of provenance research.”
2021 Göring’s Man in Paris: The Story of a Nazi Art Plunderer and His World, Jonathan Petropoulos. The career of Bruno Lohse from small-time art dealer to the “King of Paris” in 1941-1943, followed by his questionable pursuit of his trade after the war.
Other Books by Monuments Men and Women
1946 Salt Mines and Castles, Robert C. Howe Jr. Reissued in 2014. This early account was the first to document the work of the monuments men in book form.
1949 Florentine Art Under Fire, Frederick Hartt. An early, first-hand account of the work of the monuments men in Italy.
1989 Repatriation of Art from the Collecting Point in Europe after World War II, Craig H. Smyth. This publication is a reprint of a 1986 lecture by the scholar who took the lead in establishing the Munich collecting point and later headed the New York University Institute of Fine Arts. It includes perhaps the most cogent history of how the MFA&A section of the US Army came into being.
1997 A Sculptor’s Fortunes, Walker Hancock with Edward Connery Lathem. A more recent first-hand account of monuments work in Europe, which covers the sculptor’s entire career and includes photos of his portrayals of General Douglas MacArthur, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and President George H. W. Bush.
2000 The Safekeepers, A Memoir of the Arts at the End of World War II, Walter I. Farmer. Another first-hand account by one of the monuments men, which includes an account of the Wiesbaden Manifesto, in which a group of monuments men and women refused to release art in their care to U.S. postwar authorities.
2008 Memoirs of a Monuments Officer: Protecting European Artworks, John D. Skilton Jr. A highly personal and readable first-hand account of the author’s work in the monuments section, primarily in Mainfranken, Germany, which was published in full only after his death.
Stories of Recovery, Repatriation, and Restitution
2000 Landscape with Smokestacks, Howard J. Trienens. Written by the lawyer who defended an American collector whose possession of a Degas landscape came under challenge, this account confronts the legal and factual complexities that face the parties in Holocaust restitution cases.
2011 The Hare with Amber Eyes, Edmund de Waal. A highly personal account of recovery of a family’s illustrious history and some of its most meaningful possessions, a collection of Japanese netsuke.
2012 The Lady in Gold, Anne-Marie O’Connor. The full story behind the movie The Woman in Gold, including fascinating additional background and detail. The revised paperback edition added a very helpful family tree.
2014 The Roses Underneath, C. F. Yetmen. The first novel in a trilogy based on the true story of the author’s German grandmother, who rescued her displaced family by serving as a translator at the Wiesbaden Collecting Point and grew into the indispensable colleague of a fictional monuments man. The second book in the trilogy, What Is Forgiven (2017), continues her grandmother’s adventures. [The third book, That Which Remains, was released in 2021.]
2014 My Grandfather’s Gallery, Anne Sinclair. Paul Rosenberg’s granddaughter, herself a prominent French journalist, tells about the journey to recover her family heritage, including paintings by many of the 20th century’s best-known painters. No family connection to Alfred Rosenberg.
2015 The Orpheus Clock, Simon Goodman. Perhaps the most poignant account of successful recovery of family treasures, on a par with The Hare with Amber Eyes.
2020 The Night Portrait, Laura Morelli. This novel, based on the history of the Da Vinci painting Lady with an Ermine, portrays Cecilia Gallerani, the woman believed to be the lady, plus the looters and monuments men involved, and several fictional characters.
Looting in Other Times and Places
2008 Art as Plunder, The Ancient Origins of the Debate about Cultural Property, Margaret Miles. An authoritative study of the history of art as an object of plunder, focusing on Cicero’s Verrine orations and tracing their influence through to the time of Napoleon, with an epilogue updating the topic though 2008.
2009 Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World, Sharon Waxman. An objective and thoroughly researched account of several notorious examples of looting, including the ancient Near East, Egypt, and the Classical world.
2010 The Lost Chalice: The Real-Life Chase for One of the World’s Rarest Masterpieces—A Priceless 2,500-Year-Old Artifact Depicting the Fall of Troy, Vernon Silver. A useful study of Greek vases allegedly looted from Italy.
2011 Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museums, Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino. A detailed account by two motivated journalists of alleged trafficking in Classical antiquities.
2011 Lords of Sipan: A Tale of Pre-Inca Tombs, Archaeology and Crime, Sidney D. Kirkpatrick. An account of international art trafficking in Peru, followed by the shocking failure of Peru’s efforts to recover the objects through U.S. courts.