Nazi plunder
Adolf Hitler, an unsuccessful artist denied admission to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, thought of himself as a connoisseur of the arts. In Mein Kampf, he ferociously attacked modern art as degenerate. He considered Cubism, Futurism, and Dadaism products of a decadent 20th-century society. When Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, he enforced his aesthetics. The Nazis favored classical portraits and landscapes by Old Masters, particularly those of Germanic origin. Modern art was dubbed degenerate art by the Third Reich. All such art found in Germany's state museums was sold or destroyed. With the funds raised, the Führer's objective was to establish a European Art Museum in Linz. Other Nazi dignitaries like Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and Foreign Affairs minister Joachim von Ribbentrop also took advantage of German military conquests to grow their private art collections.
In 1940, an organization known as the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce, or ERR, was formed, headed for Alfred Rosenberg by . The first operating unit, the western branch for France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, called the Western Agency, was located in Paris. The chief of this Dienststelle was Kurt von Behr. Its original purpose was to collect Jewish and Freemasonic books and documents, either for destruction or for removal to Germany for further study. However, late in 1940, Hermann Göring, who in fact controlled the ERR, issued an order that effectively changed the mission of the ERR, mandating it to seize Jewish art collections and other objects. The war loot had to be collected in a central place in Paris, the Museum Jeu de Paume. At this collection point worked art historians and other personnel who inventoried the loot before sending it to Germany. Göring also commanded that the loot would first be divided between Hitler and himself. Hitler later ordered that all confiscated works of art were to be made directly available to him. From the end of 1940 to the end of 1942, Göring traveled 20 times to Paris. In the Jeu de Paume museum, art dealer Bruno Lohse staged 20 expositions of the newly looted art objects, especially for Göring, from which Göring selected at least 594 pieces for his own collection. Göring made Lohse his liaison-officer and installed him in the ERR in March 1941 as the deputy leader of this unit. Items which Hitler and Göring did not want were made available to other Nazi leaders. Under Rosenberg and Göring's leadership, the ERR seized 21,903 art objects from German-occupied countries.
The systematic dispossession of Jewish people and the transfer of their homes, businesses, artworks, financial assets, musical instruments, books, and even home furnishings to the Reich was an integral component of the Holocaust. In every country controlled by Nazis, Jews were stripped of their assets through a wide array of mechanisms and Nazi looting organizations. The most notorious auction of Nazi looted art was the degenerate art auction organized by Theodor Fischer on the 30th of June 1939 at the Grand Hotel National in Lucerne, Switzerland. The artworks on offer had been deaccessioned from German museums by the Nazis, yet many well known art dealers participated alongside proxies for major collectors and museums. In addition to public auctions, there were many private sales by art dealers. The Commission for Art Recovery has characterized Switzerland as a magnet for assets from the rise of Hitler until the end of World War II. Researching and documenting Switzerland's role as an art-dealing centre and conduit for cultural assets in the Nazi period and in the immediate post-war period was one of the missions of the Bergier Commission, under the directorship of Professor Georg Kreis. Art collections from prominent Jewish families, including the Rothschilds, the Rosenbergs, the Wildensteins, and the Schloss Family, were the targets of confiscations because of their significant value.
After the initiation of Operation Barbarossa, Eastern Europe was relentlessly plundered by Nazi German forces. In 1943 alone, 9,000,000 tons of cereals, tons of fodder, tons of potatoes, and tons of meats were sent back to Germany. During the course of the German occupation, some 12 million pigs and 13 million sheep were seized by Nazi forces. The value of this plunder is estimated at 4 billion Reichsmarks. This relatively low number in comparison to the German-occupied nations of Western Europe can be attributed to the indiscriminate scorched-earth policy pursued by Nazi Germany and the retreating Soviet Union forces in the Eastern Front. To investigate and estimate Nazi plunder in the USSR during 1941 through 1945, the Soviet State Extraordinary Commission for Ascertaining and Investigating the Crimes Committed by the German-Fascist Invaders and Their Accomplices was formed on the 2nd of November 1942. During the Great Patriotic War and afterward, until 1991, the Commission collected materials on Nazi crimes in the USSR, including incidents of plunder. Immediately following the war, the Commission outlined damage in detail to 64 of the most valuable Soviet museums, out of 427 damaged ones. In the Russian SFSR, 173 museums were found to have been plundered by the Nazis, with looted items numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
The Third Reich amassed hundreds of thousands of objects from occupied nations and stored them in several key locations, such as Musée Jeu de Paume in Paris and the Nazi headquarters in Munich. As the Allied forces gained advantage in the war and bombed Germany's cities and historic institutions, Germany began storing the artworks in salt mines and caves for protection from Allied bombing raids. These mines and caves offered the appropriate humidity and temperature conditions for artworks. Well known repositories of this kind were mines in Merkers, Altaussee, and Siegen. These mines were not only used for the storage of looted art but also of art that had been in Germany and Austria before the beginning of the Nazi rule. The Allies created special commissions, such as the MFAA organization to help protect famous European monuments from destruction and, after the war, to travel to formerly Nazi-occupied territories to find Nazi art repositories. In 1944 and 1945, one of the greatest challenges for the Monuments Men was to keep Allied forces from plundering and taking artworks and sending them home to friends and family. When off-limits warning signs failed to protect the artworks the Monuments Men started to mark the storage places with white tape, which was used by Allied troops as a warning sign for unexploded mines. They recovered thousands of objects, many of which had been pillaged by the Nazis.
The Allies collected the artworks and stored them in collecting points, in particular the Central Collection Point in Munich until they could be returned. The identifiable works of art, that had been acquired by the Germans during the Nazi rule, were returned to the countries from which they were taken. It was up to the governments of each nation if and under which circumstances they would return the objects to the original owners. When the Munich collection point was closed, the owners of many of the objects had not been found. Nations were also unable to find all the owners or to verify that they were dead. There are many organizations put in place to help return the stolen items taken from the Jewish people. For example: the World Jewish Restitution Organization, Project Heart, and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Depending on the circumstances, these organizations may receive the artworks in lieu of the heirs. Stuart Eizenstat, the Under Secretary of State and head of the US delegation sponsoring the 1998 international conference on Nazi-looted assets of Holocaust victims in Washington conference stated that From now on, the sale, purchase, exchange and display of art from this period will be addressed with greater sensitivity and a higher international standard of responsibility. The conference was attended by more than 49 countries and 13 different private entities, and the goal was to come to a federal consensus on how to handle Nazi-Era Looted Art.
Approximately 20 percent of the art in Europe was looted by the Nazis, and there are well over 100,000 items that have not been returned to their rightful owners. The majority of what is still missing includes everyday objects such as china, crystal, or silver. Since the mid-1990s, after several books, magazines, and newspapers began exposing the subject to the general public, many dealers, auction houses, and museums have grown more careful about checking the provenance of objects that are available for purchase in case they are looted. Some museums in the US and elsewhere have agreed to check the provenance of works in their collections. In September 2025, the World Jewish Restitution Organization reported that most American museums provided inadequate online information about the ownership histories of lost pieces. For instance, a portal managed by the American Alliance of Museums from 2003 to 2024 tracked almost 30,000 works. According to a survey of 160 museums, only 33 provided satisfactory information on their websites, with a number of others sharing less than they previously did via the portal. The Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project (JDCRP) is a comprehensive database that focusses on the Jewish-owned art and cultural objects plundered by the Nazis and their allies from 1933 to 1945.
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Common questions
Who organized the Nazi looting of art during World War II?
The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce, or ERR, was formed in 1940 and headed by Alfred Rosenberg. Hermann Göring controlled the ERR and issued orders to seize Jewish art collections and other objects.
When did the Nazis hold the most notorious auction of looted art?
The most notorious auction of Nazi looted art took place on the 30th of June 1939 at the Grand Hotel National in Lucerne, Switzerland. The artworks were deaccessioned from German museums and sold by Theodor Fischer.
How much economic damage did Nazi plunder cause in Eastern Europe between 1941 and 1945?
The value of plunder taken from Eastern Europe is estimated at 4 billion Reichsmarks. This figure includes cereals, fodder, potatoes, meats, pigs, and sheep seized by Nazi forces during Operation Barbarossa.
Where did the Allies store recovered Nazi-looted artworks after World War II?
The Allies stored recovered artworks in collecting points such as the Central Collection Point in Munich. They also used salt mines and caves like those in Merkers, Altaussee, and Siegen for protection before the war ended.
What percentage of European art was looted by the Nazis and how many items remain unreturned?
Approximately 20 percent of the art in Europe was looted by the Nazis, with well over 100,000 items remaining unreturned to their rightful owners. Many missing items include everyday objects such as china, crystal, or silver.