Summary of Lynn H. Nicholas's The Rape of Europa

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 On June 30, 1939, a major art auction took place at the Grand Hotel National in the Swiss resort town of Lucerne. The objects had been exhibited for some weeks before in Zurich and Lucerne, and a large international group of buyers had gathered. #2 The auction of German art was a disaster. It did not bring in nearly as much money as was hoped, and the museums did not receive a penny. The French journal Beaux Arts called the atmosphere at the Grand National stifling. #3 The Nazis had won their first parliamentary majority only six days before the museum locked up the show. Alfred Barr, who was a foreigner, was so furious that he asked architect Philip Johnson to buy several of the best pictures just to spite the sons-of-bitches. #4 The reception of modern art was not made any easier by the very mixed reception it had received for many years. In 1939, a Boston art critic, reviewing a show of contemporary German works, sadly declared: There are probably many people in Boston who will side with Hitler in this particular purge.