During the occupation of Paris, the Nazis confiscated nearly 100,000 artworks from more than 200 collectors, transporting most of the spoils to Germany, where Hitler and Goering enjoyed first pick. "The Lost Museum" dramatizes the pillage of the most extensive and valuable of these collections, which belonged to five renowned Jewish families: Rosenberg, Rothschild, Schloss, David-Weill and Bernheim-Jeune. After the war, many works that were found were returned to their owners. But a large number had disappeared, been destroyed or spirited out of Europe into the underground art market.

Drawing on recently declassified government archives and information provided exclusively to him by the heirs of these great collections, Feliciano traces the fate of the artworks as they passed from the hands of top German officials to unscrupulous French and Swiss collaborators and dealers, then on to prestigious U.S. and European auction houses. Two thousand of these stolen artworks have been identified by Feliciano in the Louvre and other French national museums, fomenting a scandal that has received front-page coverage throughout Europe and spurred a series of new claims and suits by heirs. In this updated and enlarged American edition, he reveals the location of stolen works hanging in major U.S. museums as well.

Illustrated with more than 70 photographs, most depicting paintings that have vanished forever, " The Lost Museum" is the thrilling story of one man's persistent investigation of a 50-year-old mystery and revelation of a shameful international conspiracy."Thanks to clever sleuthing and meticulous research, Hector Feliciano has uncovered the whole shocking story of Naziart-pillaging, and the no-less-shocking story of the French museums' failure to return a thousand of these pillaged paintings to their rightful owners. Besides putting an end to fifty years of official concealment, this book is a sensationally good read."--John Richardson, author of "A Life of Picasso"

"Hector Feliciano is a determined investigative reporter who takes on big targets and important subjects. He hits the bull's-eye with this account of the fate of European art treasures stolen by the Nazis."--Jim Hoagland, associate editor, "Washington Post"

" "The Lost Museum" is a powerful history of plunder--the relentless and systematic looting of European art by the Nazis during World War II.The book reads like a perverse detective story, with Goering and Hitler as a diabolical, murderous pair of art-loving thieves."--Jerome Charyn, author of "El Bronx"

"A comprehensive picture of Nazi looting and its consequences....important and instructive." "--New York Times"