The lost museum

by Hector Feliciano

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, Cezanne, and Picasso. Week after week, thousands of crates of this art streamed from Paris into Germany, many stamped with a swastika and the words "Property of the Third Reich.". Before they were through, the Nazis had taken more than 20,000 paintings, sculptures, and drawings from France. The pieces were cataloged, photographed, and shipped to Germany, often with the help of moving companies and friends and servants of the families themselves. The premium cultural spoils of war were destined for the museum of European art that Hitler planned to create in Austria, as well as for the private collections of Hitler, Goering, and other Nazi dignitaries. Looted Entartete Kunst - modern artworks - were sold into Fran