The Rape of Europa

http://www.rapeofeuropa.com/theTrailer.aspx
We presented today our research papers for our Museum Registration Methods class. Mine was about Caring for Contemporary Art Collections - nuff said... One of my classmates had a very interesting topic.

Her research focused on the Nazi Looting of Western Art during WWII. To introduce her topic, she showed us an excerpt from the documentary "The Rape of Europa", a very fascinating film! It talks about how systematic the Nazis were in collection art works in Europe during WWII.

Hitler got a group of art historians to draw up a list of exemplary works of art, both from private and public collections. Then the list were divided so that troops would have certain regions to cover. By 1945, they have already successfully collected 1/5 of the world's western art and had them stored in secret caches. Some of these caches would even have an office and a conservator! Works that were considered "degenerate" were either sold at super cheap prices or destroyed.

A less known fact about Hitler is that at age 17, he applied to an art school and was rejected. I suppose being once an aspiring artist, he understood the value of art. He planned to build a museum in his hometown, i think, to house these works of art that they had looted.