Free Hitler's Art Thief: Hildebrand Gurlitt, The Nazis, And The Looting Of Europe's Treasures Ebooks To Download
The world was stunned when eighty-year old Cornelius Gurlitt became an international media superstar in November 2013 on the discovery of over 1,400 artworks in his 1,076 square-foot Munich apartment, valued at around $1.35 billion. Gurlitt became known as a man who never was - he didn't have a bank account, never paid tax, never received social security. He simply did not exist. He had been hard-wired into a life of shadows and secrecy by his own father long before he had inherited his art collection built on the spoliation of museums and Jews during Hitler's Third Reich. The ensuing media frenzy unleashed international calls for restitution, unsettled international relations, and rocked the art world. Susan Ronald reveals in this stranger-than-fiction-tale how Hildebrand Gurlitt succeeded in looting in the name of the Third Reich, duping the Monuments Men and the Nazis alike. As an "official dealer" for Hitler and Goebbels, Hildebrand Gurlitt became one of the Third Reich's most prolific art looters. Yet he stole from Hitler too, allegedly to save modern art. Hitler's Art Thief is the untold story of Hildebrand Gurlitt, who stole more than art-he stole lives, too.
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (September 22, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250061091
ISBN-13: 978-1250061096
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.4 x 9.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #490,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #128 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > True Crime > White Collar Crime #432 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > Europe > Germany #1269 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Specific Groups > Crime & Criminals
Susan Ronald's "Hitler's Art Thief" digs deep beyond the headlines of the 2014 Munich art find story which led to uncovering almost 1700 paintings and drawings of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of Hildebrand Gurlitt, the target of her ambitious and overwrought history. The author's decision to weave in German history, focusing on the Third Reich, with Gurlitt's family history is a significant distraction and weighs on the book for more than half. This decision adds little to what attracts most readers; the art and its provenance.Ms. Ronald, not an art historian, misidentifies Egon Schiele as part of the German Expressionist movement; rather, he was a member of the Austrian Secessionist movement. She repeatedly overreaches in her storyline, e.g., she claims Hitler and Hildebrand both saw the portrait of Klimt's world famous portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer when, in fact, it was in private hands for years, not on public display. She frequently intuits actions to Gurlitt which have no basis in her research but which add to her concept of his wrongdoing and evilness.Her book is helpful describing the chaotic "feeding frenzy" art market in Germany, Holland and France after 1939 which arose after the Munich Degenerate Art Show of 1938 when banned modernist German art flooded the market outside of Germany. She identifies Alfred Barr (MOMA) buying these banned artists through "front men" art dealers.Sloppiness may come from her rush to get the book published or because of the massive amounts of "seized" art and a writer's inability to grapple with its volume and to tell a concise story. Her more interesting later pages are clearly drawn from two post war investigations by American investigators.
Hitler's Art Thief: Hildebrand Gurlitt, the Nazis, and the Looting of Europe's Treasures Rescuing Da Vinci: Hitler and the Nazis Stole Europe's Great Art - America and Her Allies Recovered It The Orpheus Clock: The Search for My Family's Art Treasures Stolen by the Nazis Mark of the Thief (Mark of the Thief #1) Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow With Hitler to the End: The Memoirs of Adolf Hitler's Valet Hitler's Last Secretary: A Firsthand Account of Life with Hitler My Father had this Luger... A true story of Hitler's Greece: A true story of Hitler's Greece Hitler's Last Witness: The Memoirs of Hitler's Bodyguard Golden Shores: Treasures Lost, Treasures Found, The Welcoming Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin The Looting Machine: Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans (Forbidden Bookshelf) Disappearing Ink: The Insider, the FBI, and the Looting of the Kenyon College Library The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War The Rape of Mesopotamia: Behind the Looting of the Iraq Museum Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949 (The Penguin History of Europe) The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century (P.S.) Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure
