The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War

By Lynn H. Nicholas

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
Winner of the 1999 Legion of Honor
Winnter of the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award

“Nicholas knows the art world as well as any military historian knows his battlefield . . . Her work deserves the widest reading.”—New York Times Book Review

“At once fascinating and horrifying [with] a strong element of spine-chilling suspense.”—Los Angeles Times

“Intriguing..suspenseful . . . a sensational story of moral courage and greatness of character in the face of pure evil.”—Houston Chronicle

The cast of characters includes Hitler and Goering, Gertrude Stein and Marc Chagall—not to mention works by artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Pablo Picasso. And the story told in this superbly researched and suspenseful book is that of the Third Reich's war on European culture and the Allies' desperate effort to preserve it.

From the Nazi purges of "Degenerate Art" and Goering's shopping sprees in occupied Paris to the perilous journey of the Mona Lisa from Paris and the painstaking reclamation of the priceless treasures of liberated Italy, The Rape of Europa is a sweeping narrative of greed, philistinism, and heroism that combines superlative scholarship with a compelling drama.

Paperback
512 pages
Vintage Books, 1995
5.2 x 1 x 8 inches
ISBN 9780679756866
Award-Winning, Art History