Art Plunder: The Fate of Works of Art in War and Unrest

by Wilhelm Treue, Basil Creighton (Translator)

Table of Contents:

1. Art Plunder in Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
2. Charlemagne and the Statue of Theoderic
3. The Looting of Constantinople by the Crusaders
4. Constantinople under the Turks
5. The Burgundian Booty
6. The Sack of Rome
7. Libraries as Loot
8. The Thirty Years War
9. The Dispersal of Charles I's Collection
10. Marlborough's Requests for Pictures
11. Art Plunder and the Art Market
12. The Elgin Marbles
13. Land Grabbing and Art Plunder
14. Art Plunder and the French Revolution
15. The Looting of the Summer Palace in Peking
16. A Berlin!
17. War and Art Conservation
18. Agreement by Treaty
19. Plunder on the Home Front and Abroad
20. Revolutionary Plunder without Looting

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1957

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was about equal parts interesting and yawn-inducing. It's sort of a historical survey of art plunder, beginning with antiquity and ending with World War II. The final three chapters betray possible boredom on the author's part as well, as he quotes enormous chunks of primary sources verbatim. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. Unadulterated primary sources can often be more interesting than summaries of them. I definitely want to know more now about Lord Elgin and the Duke of Marlborough.