Rape of Europa Movie Review - Review of The Rape of Europa - 2008

The Rape of Europa is a gripping nonfiction thriller about the systematic plunder of Europe’s great art treasures by the Nazis during the years of Third Reich and World War II.

Centered around the theft of Gustav Klimpt’s famous Gold Portrait, stolen in 1938 from a family of Viennese Jews, then eventually recovered and returned to them after the war (it's the most expensive painting ever sold), this fascinating documentary chronicles the systematic removal of paintings, sculptures, religious and decorative art and other treasures from museums and private collections in all of the countries occupied by the Nazis.

Based on Lynn Nicholas' book of the same title, directors Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham use archival footage, photographs and documents to take us on the route of plunder, explaining how Hitler, the failed art student with aspirations to set the aesthetic ideals for his Aryan nation, and his cohorts, especially Reichsmarschall Herman Göring, categorized masterpieces as acceptable to Aryan ideals or not, placed the works they deemed socially and aesthetically pleasing in German museums and their personal collections (Göring put about half the works ‘confiscated from enemies’ into his own collection), and simply destroyed those they found to be ‘degenerate’--modern works and those created by Jews or items associated with Judaism.

The film shows how local people fought back, trying to hide museum and church art from the Nazis and sometimes succeeding. Saving art was part of the resistance movement.

After the war, the Allies discovered many of the stolen works secreted by the Nazis in salt mines (which provided ideal environmental conditions for their preservation), set up art squads (many members of which eventually become museum curators) and repatriated the works to their rightful owners. One of their pressing challenges was, however, to prevent liberating troops from plundering Nazi repositories and taking priceless objects home. Many of the stolen art works are still missing and there are ongoing efforts to find and restore them to their owners to the present.

Narrated by Joan Allen, this film is a gripping and dramatic primer about how centuries of art history were almost destroyed by the fanaticism and greed that swept through Europe, threatening to wipe out much of humankind’s artistic patrimony

As thorough as the film is, it sidesteps specific allegations made by journalist Hector Feliciano in his book, The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World's Greatest Works of Art, that several prominent art dealers, including the famed Wildenstein family, were complicit in Nazi confiscation of art from the private collections of wealthy Jewish families. Perhaps there’s a second film to be made about this, and about the reluctance of some museums to return ill-gained works to their rightful owners, as is reported in Feliciano’s ongoing reporting.

Film Details

• Release Date: DVD September 16, 2008
• Parents Guide: Add content advisory for parents
• Runtime: 117 min
• Country: USA
• Languages: English, Russian, Polish, German, French, Italian
• Filming Locations: Bad Aussee, Steiermark, Austria, more
• Awards: RiverRun International Film Festival 2007 Audience Choice Award
• Company: Menemsha Films (theatrical and DVD)