Open VISIONS Forum: Espresso - Jonathan Petropoulos, PhD - Tuesday, November 10 at 7:30 PM

Date: 11-10-2020

Time: 07:30 PM

Location: www.thequicklive.com

Free virtual event; Tune in by visiting www.thequicklive.com.

Open VISIONS Forum: Espresso

Jonathan Petropoulos, PhD,
Chair of European History, Claremont-McKenna College

Hermann Göring's Man in Paris: The Story of a Nazi Art Plunderer and His World

Presented with the Fairfield University Art Museum and in collaboration with the programs in: Art History, Visual & Performing Arts; Judaic Studies, the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies, German language, Dept. of MLL and the History Dept.

Join us for the fascinating story of Dr. Bruno Lohse, who served as an art agent for a Schutzstaffel (SS) officer, Hermann Göring, in Paris during WWII. The Schutzstaffel was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II.

Dr. Lohse helped his supervisor acquire hundreds of paintings, playing a leading role in the Nazi looting organization, the ERR, which raided art from Jewish apartments, some of which were still “warm.”

Lohse also saved certain Jews—figures in the art world who were useful to him—and assisted in the rescue of a treasure trove of looted art stored in the Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria (as well as the invaluable card-catalogue that listed the former owners).

The former Nazi plunderer had a twenty-year postwar relationship with Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Theodore Rousseau, who had been a Monuments Officer (their correspondence survived). When Lohse died in 2007, he had dozens of artworks—many in a Swiss bank vault—including works by Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro. How he amassed such a collection and such wealth, and how he utilized a deceptive foundation in Liechtenstein and a Swiss bank to conceal his assets, is a hard-to-believe story.

More about Petropoulos:

Professor Jonathan Petropoulos, who earned his PhD at Harvard in 1990, is an internationally recognized expert on Nazi art looting. His unique skills allowed him to interview Lohse dozens of times over a nine-year period from 1998 until 2007. From 1998-2000 he served as Research Director of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets. Featured in the 2006 documentary, The Rape of Europa, Petropoulos is the “go to” expert for international tribunals seeking restitution of stolen artworks under the twisted legal dealings of the Third Reich.                     

Related Web Site : http://quickcenter.fairfield.edu/fall-2020-season-calendar/lectures/Jonathan-petropoulos.html


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