Defending National Treasures ─ French Art and Heritage Under Vichy

Karlsgodt (history, U. of Denver) has carried out exhaustive research in order to reconstruct the policies of art preservation under the Vichy government in France. She provides specific accounts of how and why French administrators formulated new laws regarding French cultural patrimony, then describes the complex process of evacuating art collections from the museums and keeping them safe in the provinces, negotiations with the acquisitive Nazis (including the story of the Bayeux Tapestry's travels), the give and take between the French museum administrators and the Germans over the formerly Jewish-owned art collections, and the reorganization of the museums and formulation of new preservation measures and archaeological regulations. Two chapters detail the acquisition of bronze statues throughout France that were melted down in Germany. Painstakingly detailed, this important study brings nuance to a painful story. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)