Nazi Looting and World War II
The Art of the Steal: Nazi looting during World War II
The Nazis looted over 20% of Western Art during World War II, confiscating art from Jewish families and emptying museums throughout Europe. This lecture will provide an overview of Nazi looting by setting the scene in Nazi Germany, discussing Hitler’s obsession with art and how the Monuments Men recovered art after the war. Several landmark cases will be discussed in detail, including Gustav Klimt’s celebrated Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer and the stash of over 1200 artworks found in possession of the son of a notorious Nazi dealer.
The Inside Stories: the real stories behind the most intriguing cases of Nazi looted art
Each artwork tells its own story. This lecture will look at several famous works of art that were looted by the Nazis and discuss their incredible journeys from their pre-wartime owners to their current locations. Examples of artworks that we will examine include Lucas Cranach’s Cupid Complaining to Venus and Pablo Picasso’s Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, which was once owned by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. We will discuss what makes these works so intriguing and why the thefts still resonate today.
Making a Killing: Nazi Looted Art and the Art Market
The art market is big business. There is an intense interest in Nazi Looted Art from the art market for two reasons: reputable dealers and auction houses don't want to sell objects with bad titles and many museum quality objects that weren't available are now surfacing on the market thanks to their return to their prewar owners. This lecture will examine how the art market deals with art that was looted by the Nazis and look at some of the famous looted artworks that have been sold recently.
The Assault on Modern Art in Nazi Germany
The Nazis used propaganda to show that particular artists contributed to the decline of German culture and staged an exhibition of what they dubbed ‘Degenerate Art’. Some of the artists featured at this exhibit included modern masters such as Emil Nolde, Oskar Kokoshka and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. This lecture will examine the art world in Nazi Germany and the motivations behind the National Socialist movement to rid Germany of Modern Art.
Art in Europe between the Wars
The era from 1918– 1939 was a time of contradictions in art. This age birth to the modern thinkers in the Weimar period in Germany, but in France, many contemporary artists shunned modernism and called for a ‘Return to Oder’. This lecture will examine how the time between the First and Second World Wars affected artists in different parts of Europe and what this meant moving forward.
Past Imperfect: Why World War II art looting is still an issue today
This lecture will examine the effects on Nazi looting during World War II. We will look at this from the perspective of museums, art exhibits, the art market and the families who had their treasures taken from them. This will include in-depth examination of landmark restitution cases.