ART FOR DAS REICH

During World War II, art was plundered on an immense scale. From the occupied territories, the Nazis hauled art off to Germany to build ambitious collections. For the first time, that story is being told for Belgium. How could paintings by Memling, Van der Weyden, Brueghel, Jordaens, and Cranach simply leave the country? After ten years of research, Geert Sels pieces together the puzzle from evidence he found in archives all over Europe.

Through rigourous detective work, he maps out the routes along which the art was taken away. After the war, paintings from Belgium found their way to the Louvre, Tate Britain, the Getty Museum, and the Yale Art Gallery. The Netherlands, France, Germany, and even Russia turn out to still hold art that should have been returned to Belgium. That makes the Belgian story an international one. Other works did come back and now are on display in Belgian museums – but without any effort to trace their rightful owners. Why did that never happen? Unlike other countries, Belgium has remained painfully passive on the issue of Nazi-looted art. Art for das Reich presents an uncomfortable truth and serves as a stress test for government policy.