Art Theft

Tracking Nazi and Soviet Art Thefts.

During World War II the Nazis stole large numbers of art works from Jews who either fled Europe or were sent to concentration camps, and the German army looted works from museums and private collections in occupied countries. Then, as the Third Reich collapsed, the Soviet army sent special brigades to find art treasures in Soviet-occupied Germany. According to one estimate, the Soviets took 2.5 million art works and 10 million books and manuscripts back to Russia. About 1.5 million items were returned to East Germany in the 1950s. In the 1990s several new organizations—the Holocaust Art Restitution Project (HARP), the Commission for Art Recovery, and the Art and Archive Foundation—were founded to help survivors and descendants locate missing family heirlooms. As John Marks has pointed out, many survivors and descendants of victims of the Holocaust "see this art not only as a commodity but...

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