The Rape of Europa (2006)

When Hitler came to power, he sought to reclaim truly "Germanic" art, as well as masterpieces of previous centuries, for an elaborate museum in his hometown of Linzt. He called upon experts to compile lists of desirable art works held in European museums, and dedicated his military forces to looting these pieces when they invaded major cities. After claiming for themselves many works owned by prominent Jewish families (declared "ownerless" after they were sent to ghettos or camps), the Nazis also stole from various Austrian, Polish, Russian, and Italian museums while some institutions- most notably, the Louvre- did their best to empty out their treasures for storage in discreet countryside locations.

When the Americans entered the war, they faced the task of protecting fragile monuments that became part of the battlefield in Italy, so they hired consultants to go to the front and examine the damages to important structures and in some cases, work on restoring them. These so-called "Monuments Men" also recovered hundreds of stolen artworks, found in caves and abandoned buildings around Italy and Germany, in storage until the Nazis won the war and began establishing their empire as a grandiose culture center. Unfortunately, many artworks are still missing, either still in hiding or in the possession of private collectors, some of whom probably don't know that the pieces are stolen. Today, art historians are working to reclaim these works, but many may never be found.

Probably this has been made apparent, but I am pretty passionate about art and art history. Along with movies, they're like my favorite thing. I'm also very interested in German history and the WWII time period. Basically, The Rape of Europa is a captivating combination of things I like learning about. There's a wide range of interviews, from a Jewish woman trying to reclaim Klimt's painting of her aunt that was taken by Nazis, to a woman whose curator parents guarded the Mona Lisa at a private estate during the war, to a Monuments Man who discovered Hitler's secrete cache of masterpieces in a deep underground tunnel.

A lot of different stories are told about various heroes who fought to protect art in the face of danger. There were employees of the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad, who shoveled out incoming snow and picked away accumulating ice after the windows had been broken in, even as they were starving to death. One woman (whose name I forget, damn it), who worked at a German museum that Nazis used to store stolen art, secretly cataloged all of the works coming in and where they were sent, so that they could be reclaimed later on.

I find this kind of stuff fascinating, and heartbreaking. Seeing the galleries of the Louvre lined with empty frames, or the marring of a Da Vinci painting with a soldier's boot print, or the haphazard storage of Raphaels and Manets in a dirty cave: all of this was enough to make me cry, because I am that affected by it. I never knew the extent of Nazi looting, or the great number of works still missing. Usually when art and Hitler are mentioned, it's either focusing on the Degenerate Art Exhibition, or his initial desire to be a professional artist himself.

The main failing of The Rape of Europa is that it's so packed with information, it feels a little all over the place. There's so much to tell about this subject- whom it affected, problems it spawned, how it was dealt with at the time, and the vastness of its scope. While I found everything incredibly interesting, I couldn't help but wish that certain things had been elaborated or just made more of a focus. It's based on the book of the same name by Lynn Nicholas, which I am dying to read so I can get more details on the many issues addressed in the film version. Otherwise, it's an intriguing documentary for anyone interested in art, Germany, history, WWII, or a good story.

4.5/5