The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy To Steal The World's Greatest Works Of Art
by Hector Feliciano
List Price:
Our Price: $12.77
You Save: $7.23 (36%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.72 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Hector FelicianoEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-04-25
ISBN: 0465041914
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Basic Books
Book Reviews of The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy To Steal The World's Greatest Works Of Art
Book Review: The most important art book in a decade
Summary: 5 Stars
Other books may relate how the Nazis plundered art, but this book actually led the world to do something about it. You know how you read in the paper all the time that some heir of a Holocaust victim is in a lawsuit to get back valuable paintings? It's directly a result of The Lost Museum. For fifty years, nothing happened in terms of restitution. Feliciano's groundbreaking investigative research is what led museums to examine the provenance of their artwork, caused governments to change their statutes of limitations, and urged heirs to pursue artworks they assumed had long ago vanished.
I wish I could give it more than five stars.
Summary of The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy To Steal The World's Greatest Works Of Art
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.
Pillage is one of the traditional perks of warfare. But it took Adolf Hitler to systematize the decimation and despoiling of cultures, and it took Hector Feliciano seven years to track five famous art collections stolen by the Nazis. He uncovered not only Nazi schemes but also a well-oiled machine of collaborators, informants, moving companies, and neighbors, all with their fingers in the pie. The Lost Museum reads like a good detective story. Inspired by a fascination with the theft of five prominent Parisian Jewish families' art collections, it focuses on the beneficiaries of the thefts and justice for its victims. Filled with family photos of the art, some never before seen by the public, The Lost Museum tracks the pieces as they passed through the hands of German officials, unscrupulous art dealers, and unsuspecting auction houses. That the network was so deviously intricate illustrates the enormous challenge of restitution.
The relationship between Nazi higher-ups, keen to advance their own collections, and non-Jewish dealers bodes well for the Parisian art scene. A Picasso for a Titian; two classics for eleven late-19th-/early-20th-century moderns? Such wheeling and dealing reduces art to tug-of-war commodities, and Feliciano's The Lost Museum at times seems to question nothing less than what art serves, and who profits from it. If you like a good detective story and can tolerate the frustration of justice impaired by greed, then this thoroughly documented dark tale is for you.
Art History Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Art History Books
Learn to Paint Oil Pastelsby Jacqueline Black
HarperCollins; Published: 1993-07-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $28.91
Oil Painting (Collins Artist's Guides)by ANGELA GAIR (EDITOR)
COLLINS; Published: 1998; Paperback; Book
Collins Artist's Guide: Making Pictures Pb (Artists Guides)by Angela Gair
Harpercollins; Published: 1997-07; Paperback; Book
Colour Mixing: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started (Collins Learn to Paint Series)by Judy Martin
HarperCollins UK; Published: 1998-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $699.99
Learn to Draw Dogs Pbby David Brown
Harpercollins; Published: 1996-02-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.95
Garfield Sits Around the House (Garfield (Numbered Paperback))by Jim Davis
Ballantine Books; Published: 1984-10-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.99
Sargent's Veniceby Richard Ormond, Warren Adelson
Yale University Press; Published: 2006-12-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $383.98
Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernismby Timothy J. Clark
Yale University Press; Published: 1999-03-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $35.10
Price in other shops:
Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Artby Phoebe Hoban
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1999-09-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.94
Price in other shops:
The Illustrator in America: 1860-2000by Walt Reed
Collins Design; Published: 2003-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $339.10
Similar Books and other products
The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece (P.S.)by Edward Dolnick
Harper Perennial; Published: 2006-06-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.07
Price in other shops:
The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germanyby Jonathan Petropoulos
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2000-03-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.04
Price in other shops:
Hitler's Museum: The Secret History of Art Theft During World War IIKultur; Release date: 2009-01-27; DVD
Best price: $10.57
Price in other shops:
Lost Lives, Lost Art: Jewish Collectors, Nazi Art Theft, and the Quest for Justiceby Melissa Muller, Monika Tatzkow
Vendome Press; Published: 2010-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.18
Price in other shops:
Nazi Plunder: Great Treasure Stories Of World War IIby Kenneth D. Alford
Da Capo Press; Published: 2003-04-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops:
The Venus Fixers: The Remarkable Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy's Art During World War IIby Ilaria Dagnini Brey
Picador; Published: 2010-06-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.63
Price in other shops:
The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in Historyby Robert M. Edsel
Center Street; Published: 2010-09-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.28
Price in other shops:
The Rape of EuropaRepnet LLC; Release date: 2008-09-16; DVD
Best price: $14.34
Price in other shops:
Rescuing Da Vinci: Hitler and the Nazis Stole Europe's Great Art - America and Her Allies Recovered Itby Robert M. Edsel
PBS; Laurel Publishing, LLC; Published: 2006-12-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.99
Price in other shops:
The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World Warby Lynn H. Nicholas
Polish Books; Vintage; Published: 1995-04-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops: