Resistance at the Museum: Arts and Culture during the German Occupation

During World War II, German forces plundered hundreds of thousands of works of art – an estimated 20 percent of all artworks in Europe – from people opposed to Nazi ideology, including Communists, Freemasons and, most prominently, Jewish families. In Paris, most of this artwork ended up in the Musée Jeu de Paume – a small museum located within the Jardin des Tuileries. During its four-year tenure as an unwilling repository for the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), an estimated 22,000 stolen works of art passed through the museum, where they were either transferred into the Reich, exchanged with other dealers or destroyed.

In this talk, bestselling author Bryn Turnbull will introduce you to the Musée Jeu de Paume and the astounding impact of the war on France’s art collectors and connoisseurs, as brought to life in her most recent novel, The Paris Deception.