![]() As the Nazis' defeat became inevitable, vitriol outweighed aesthetic sensibility. Nearly everything, including the massive Winged Victory of Samothrace, had been shipped to country estates the Mona Lisa escaped in a humidity-controlled ambulance, swathed in red satin. By the time the Germans reached Paris, the halls of the Louvre were lined with empty frames. While private citizens, particularly Jews, could do little to save their collections, some museums went to elaborate lengths to protect their treasures. Arbitrary designations-Krakow was "Slavic," Warsaw was "Germanic"-dictated what was looted, left behind, or destroyed. But Hitler wasn't just collecting masterpieces thousands of works by "degenerate" artists, among them van Gogh and Matisse, were rounded up and sold or burned. ![]() ![]() Some were slated for Hitler's Louvre-sized museum of Aryan artwork, while others were stashed in underground warehouses. The Nazis lifted 650,000 pieces from Europe's museums and private collections. Nicholas' 1995 book of the same name, is a powerful expose of the greatest art theft in history. The rebuff only fueled his obsession with art and may help explain why, years later, the Third Reich would systematically steal one-fifth of Europe's artistic treasures. ![]() In 1907, an 18-year-old watercolorist named Adolf Hitler applied to and was rejected by Vienna's prestigious Academy of Fine Arts. ![]() 2007 Foundation for National Progress 26 May. MLA style: "The Rape of Europa." The Free Library. ![]()
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