The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War Lynn H. Nicholas

The cast of characters includes Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering, Gertrude Stein and Marc Chagall - not to mention works by artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Pablo Picasso. And the story told in this superbly researched and suspenseful book is that of the Third Reich's war on European culture and the Allies' effort to preserve it. From the Nazi purges of "Degenerate Art " and Goering's shopping sprees in occupied Paris to the perilous journey of the Mona Lisa from Paris (while bridges exploded in its wake) and the painstaking reclamation of the priceless treasures of liberated Italy, The Rape of Europa is a sweeping narrative of greed, philistinism, and heroism that combines superlative scholarship with the breakneck pace of a thriller.