Cover Image: Goering's Man in Paris

Goering's Man in Paris

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Member Reviews

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

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Loved this book. Lots of interesting information to digest. This is a great read for anyone who loves to read about history. Very well written

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Originally reading this material , it felt like a magazine article as author wanted to clarify that che was not an admirer of Lohse, the man whose career he focuses on in the book .. but as the narrative unravelled I was caught up not only in the wiles and ways of this collaborationist but in the commentary about the author's ongoing suspicions about what he was told about event and people .. in other words . The validity of testimony , of witnessing .. he has to weigh up what he's told from other evidence .. that in itself is ongoing enthralling theme .. smart, well written and engaging!

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This is such a fascinating book, one which exposes the murky world of art dealing in all its shocking aspects. I think we are all familiar with the fact that the Nazis plundered art, especially Jewish art, during WWII, but I hadn’t realised the scale. And issues of restitution plague the art world to this day, with many pictures still missing. What this book does so expertly, and with such meticulous research, is explore who the key players were and how they managed to continue dealing in art even after the war. The author focuses on one such key player, Bruno Lohse, one of the most notorious art plunderers, with whom he developed a close relationship over many years, but the book is certainly not just about Lohse. Petropoulos goes into forensic detail and even my interested eyes glazed over at times with all the facts and figures, but the book remains such an important comprehensive work about the subject that any momentary longueurs are easily forgiven. In general the book is really an indictment of the amorality of the art world, a world in which obsession with acquisition and greed seem to outweigh all other concerns and a world in which it is not just the Nazis who were – or indeed are - guilty.

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I took it that "Enigma" by Robert Harris was suggesting the Nazis lost WW2 because they were wasting energy on the Final Solution, but that wasn't all they were doing. No, some were funding expeditions to find the tunnel into the North Pole that led to the world within Earth where the Aryan mother race were still living, or something, and a heck of a lot were looting Paris and the markets of a lot of art. A lot of it was about – with little else to spend money on, the rich were investing in the painting trade, and no end of art was stolen from the walls of Jewish galleries, collections and living rooms. This book looks at the life and times of one such dealer, who ended up being Goering's prime procurer, dallying round France and beyond getting artworks for Goering, Himmler, and Nazi museums of the future. He's not the one who had a maze of thousands of artworks stuffed secretly into his Munich apartment, who was revealed a few years back, but he's cut of the same cloth.

A much richer cut, mind. You could think to expect a major work of public acclaim where that hoarder was concerned, but our subject here has resulted in a very different book. This will probably want for the public acclaim, for it is definitely on the academic side. The chapter that seemingly wants to concentrate on Herr Lohse and two key years of his success, ends up giving more than a page to no end of similar people, contacts, rivals and compadres of his. A huge chunk of this is the notes and references. More importantly, it doesn't read as if it's catering to the average, general browser whatsoever.

But it also seems to fall down a little on the academic side – later on it tries to veer into being the Book Nobody Dare Write about a certain dynasty of dealers, but does it in a very woolly way with not enough connection to the prime subject. I must have come to this before the proof-readers, for my copy says Lohse both quit Paris on the 18th August, and that he was in Berlin for a fortnight until the 19th. Yes, it covers so, so much with forensic detail, but I was left wondering quite who the audience for this would be. For people building a library of Jewish issue books, this is too much involved in legalities, specifics and minutiae to appeal. For people on the art history side of things, this really does open up a world where thousands of inheritances have been shafted due to Nazi looting, and millions of provenances have a question mark, but does it in a way many will feel too restricting. I for one found it amazing how much of the dealers post-war were Jewish-owned firms, trading in loot stolen from Jews – but this was never raised, while the mountains of research took centre-stage. For a handful of people this is priceless, but from Joe Average's POV, this is little more than three stars.

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A very interesting account of a strange and scary man. Lohse was that type of man that is "evil adjecent" and uses that lack of direct monstrosity to justify his actions. A man who profited off of other people's suffering and never repented for that (or believed he needed to repent).
Petropoulos presents a very well researched biography of Gőring's art dealer in Paris. He also adds to the research his own personal interviews with Lohse himself. The depiction of their conversations and the ease with which Lohse lied to him is, in my opinion, the most interesting part of the book.
If you are interested in looking deeper into the actions of a "cog" in the Nazi machine, this is the book for you.

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A fascinating book and gives a great insight into just how much there was plundered during this time. Certainly a different viewpoint on the war and a very interesting read.

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*Many thanks to Jonathan Petropoulos, Yale University Press, London, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
I am interested in the subject matter, that is works of art stolen by the Nazis. My knowledge is general and not professional, and this book opened my eyes to the sheer scale of the plunder during the WW2 and, more shockingly, to massive post-war underground art dealing. The Author concentrates on one man, Bruno Lohse, who managed to accumulate unimaginable wealth during the war thanks to his close co-operation with Herman Goring, and who, after the war, was an active art dealer.
The book reads well, and is eye-opening.

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