The Rape of Europa

Director: Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, Nicole Newnham Country: USA, released 2006 Duration: 117 min., Video Language: English Based on Lynn H. Nicholas’ book of the same name, this astonishing and timely documentary tells the epic story of the systematic theft, deliberate destruction and miraculous survival of Europe’s art treasures during the Third Reich. The film begins and ends with artist Gustav Klimt’s 1907 portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (a turn-of-the-20th-century Viennese hostess), recently awarded to the latter’s 90-year-old niece. In turn, she sold it only months ago to Ronald Lauder for a staggering $135 million, the then-highest price ever paid for a work of art.