Stolen Treasure

Fülszöveg

One ol' the best-kept secrets of post-war Russia has been the whereabouts oF the 'trophy' art -priceless paintings, sculptures, coins, glass, jewels, books and other museum items removed from their hiding places in Germany at the end of World War II by specially-formed teams of soldiers and specialists. This extraordinary story, a combination of tragedy, action drama, even farce, set against the blasted landscape of ruined liurope, begins in 1943, with the Soviet plans to remove unique artefacts from Germany as partial restitution for the Nazi's terrible trail of destruction. The li.st included masterpieces by Rembrandt, Dürer, El Greco, Botticelli, Schliemann's Trojan Gold - the best of the world's art culled from Germany's magnificent museums.
The Nazis had hidden their treasures in mineshafts, towers and other secret locations for the duration of the war, and the account of their discovery, sometimes intact, sometimes in fragments, is itself heartstopping. But the story does... Tovább

Fülszöveg

One ol' the best-kept secrets of post-war Russia has been the whereabouts oF the 'trophy' art -priceless paintings, sculptures, coins, glass, jewels, books and other museum items removed from their hiding places in Germany at the end of World War II by specially-formed teams of soldiers and specialists. This extraordinary story, a combination of tragedy, action drama, even farce, set against the blasted landscape of ruined liurope, begins in 1943, with the Soviet plans to remove unique artefacts from Germany as partial restitution for the Nazi's terrible trail of destruction. The li.st included masterpieces by Rembrandt, Dürer, El Greco, Botticelli, Schliemann's Trojan Gold - the best of the world's art culled from Germany's magnificent museums.
The Nazis had hidden their treasures in mineshafts, towers and other secret locations for the duration of the war, and the account of their discovery, sometimes intact, sometimes in fragments, is itself heartstopping. But the story does not end there. The works looted from the sacked capital of the Third Reich, for transferral to Soviet museums, were to undergo further adventures and indignities. Some were damaged in transit, some, such as the recently-shown Impressionists at the Hermitage, survive in Russia's galleries to this day, and some were returned to Germany by Kruschev in the fifties, but much was stolen or simply disappeared from view and memory.
Konstantin Akinsha and Grigorii Kozlov, art historians resident in Moscow, have followed the trail of the stolen treasure from the wartime planning meetings right up to the present day Their book, filled with high drama, priceless art, extraordinary individuals, political manoeu-vrings, graft and corruption is a true story, still being told, which reads like the best adventure fiction.
II.LLISTIUTED

Konstantin Akinsha was born in Kiev and graduated from Moscow State University's Department of Art History in 1983. He has since taken a doctorate in art history and is a contributing editor of AKTnews.
Grigorii Kozlov was born in Volgograd and graduated from Moscow State University's Department of Art History in 1984. He has worked for the All-Union Vuchetich Art Production Corporation, the Ministry of Culture and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.
In April 1991 Akinsha and Kozlov published the first article to uncover the so-called 'special depositories' of the Soviet museums, turning the spotlight on thousands of art works from German and European collections hidden in the Soviet Union since the end of World War II. In 1992 they were awarded the George Polk Memorial Award for achievements in investigative journalism and in 1993 they were instrumental in returning to the Germans a cache ot drawings and prints including works by Dürer, Delacroix, Manet and Toulouse-Lautrec.
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