Description
By Kenneth D. Alford. Jan van Eyck’s Ghent altarpiece, Michelangelo’s “Madonna and Child,” Van Dyke’s “Portrait of a Man With Neck Frill”—what happened to these celebrated artworks and other treasures procured by the Third Reich during the 1930s and 1940s?
The Spoils of World War II by Kenneth D. Alford answers that question while telling a remarkable story of greed and avarice, with war-torn Europe as its backdrop. More than 50 years of research and documentation have finally revealed the extent to which the German forces acquired artworks from the lands they occupied and portrays the American military forces as both liberators . . . and plunderers themselves.
The Reich armies protected everything from art treasures to porcelain, pottery, furniture and even Austria’s prized Lippizaner stallions.
But when the Reich finally fell, what happened to these priceless objects when the American troops located the vast storehouses of treasure, and what became of the possessions of the various private mansions and castles that lay along the routes of the “liberators”? This is the story of many of the individuals who did the “liberating.”
Names are revealed and the culprits range from lower-level staff officers to generals at the very top of the command chain.
The Spoils of World War II is a definitive record of events that have, for the most part, remained hidden for over half a century.
The many illustrations have been reproduced from photographs in the National Archives in Washington and show in startling detail some of the greatest works of art in Western history.
Hardback, 238 pages
