The theft of art, or cultural looting, has almost always been one of the staple by-products of genocide and genocidal regimes. From ancient times to modern conflicts (e.g., the war in the former Yugoslavia), the plunder of artworks and the willful destruction of a cultural heritage have been used by the victor as a supplementary means to conquer, annihilate, and humiliate the enemy. Not only do conquerors try to obliterate their enemies physically, but they also try to take possession of their victims' precious art objects, including those that express their identity thereby simultaneously stealing the soul, meaning, and cultural values of a people.

Such stealing and destruction have occurred in many modern instances of genocide, including the Armenian genocide, the Khmer Rouges in Cambodia, Native Americans in the United States and Latin America, the wars in former Yugoslavia, but Adolf Hitler and the Nazis carried out what can...