1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910789570503321

Autore

Karlsgodt Elizabeth Campbell

Titolo

Defending national treasures [[electronic resource] ] : French art and heritage under Vichy / / Elizabeth Campbell Karlsgodt

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Stanford, Calif., : Stanford University Press, 2011

ISBN

0-8047-7782-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (405 p.)

Disciplina

363.6/9094409044

Soggetti

Art treasures in war - France - History - 20th century

Art museums - France - History - 20th century

Art and state - France - History - 20th century

World War, 1939-1945 - Destruction and pillage - France

World War, 1939-1945 - Confiscations and contributions - France

Cultural property - Protection - France - History - 20th century

France History German occupation, 1940-1945

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cultural affairs under Vichy -- Defending French style and beauty -- Exodus -- Museums fit for France -- Saving historic sites -- Archeology and the national revolution -- Recycling French heroes : the destruction of bronze statues -- Endangered local patrimony : bronze statues in Paris, Chambéry, and Nantes -- Jewish art collections -- Art as a negotiating tool -- The Vichy legacy.

Sommario/riassunto

Defending National Treasures explores the fate of art and cultural heritage during the Nazi occupation of France. The French cultural patrimony was a crucial locus of power struggles between German and French leaders and among influential figures in each country. Karlsgodt examines the preservation policy that the Vichy regime enacted in an assertion of sovereignty over French art museums, historic monuments, and archeological sites. The limits to this sovereignty are apparent from German appropriations of public statues, Jewish-owned art collections, and key "Germanic" works of art from French museums. A final chapter traces the lasting impact of the French wartime reforms on preservation policy. In Defending National Treasures, Karlsgodt introduces the



concept of patrimania to reveal examples of opportunism in art preservation. During the war, French officials sought to acquire coveted artwork from Jewish collections for the Louvre and other museums; in the early postwar years, they established a complicated guardianship over unclaimed art recovered from Germany. A cautionary tale for our own times, Defending National Treasures examines the ethical dimensions of museum acquisitions in the ongoing noble quest to preserve great works of art.