A Review Of The Rape of Europa - By: steamtown

When one thinks of a war documentary there comes to mind endless battles and heroic actions by some of the well known actors, but this film "The Rape of Europa", deals with the lesser known aspects of war. The looted art that takes place in the conquered nations. We have all heard about the art that was looted by the Nazis during World War 11 but how many important paintings and sculptures and other artworks were actually stolen by them. One might guess hundreds or even thousands.

This important documentary was directed by Richard Berge and Bonn Cohen,they were also the writers. Joan Allen narrates this chronicle about the battle over the very survival of centuries of western culture. It's actually about the heroic and gallant efforts of young art historians and curators from America and across Europe who fought back,mounting a miraculous campaign that would rescue and return the millions of art works displaced by the war.

It tells us that Hitler and especially Goring were personally interested in great works of art and this film puts the figure at a much higher number than was previously known.They estimate that one fifth of all the known significant art works and sculptures that were in Europe at the time, well over a million, were stolen.

If you were to study the early years of Hitler you would have known that he was fascinated by art throughout his entire life and some of his very own sketching are still around today. When he started to overrun countries during the war, he had his own special troops that would plunder the art works and send them back to Germany. He had a grand scheme to include them in an art museum in Linz. He was even working on these planes during the last days of the second World War.

This documentary starts out with one painting by Gustav Klimt's "Gold Portrait of Frau Bloch-Bauer," which was stolen from the Jews. It disappears and later reappears in the galleries and museums in Europe and America. Then the niece of the man who had commissioned the painting, Marie Altmann, waged a long and costly legal battle to have the painting returned to her. She prevailed and won the legal battle and this painting was later sold at an auction and set a record of $135 million.

It's unfortunate that many of the people that posses stolen works of art think they are above the law and refuse to return stolen property to their right full owners.Some of these priceless works of art are hidden from the general public and are only viewed in the homes of these collectors.But now there is an international tracing operation underway and hopefully more of these priceless works of art will be recovered.

I think that it would be impossible to put an exact figure on the number of missing works of art because no one really know how many art works were destroyed by the bombing raids conducted by both sides during this conflict. The only city that I know that was spared the bombing raids was Venice and that was the result of the orders one man. General Eisenhower [later President Eisenhower] deployed the "Momument Men", who were art experts,
were ordered to identify and protect the surviving art works of liberated nations. Just imagine the world without Masterpieces.

About the Author

Andrew Conway is an avid author,writer and a classic movie buff. If you love watching movies or just listening to great music, then visit: http://www.Ultimate-Free-Downloads.com

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