Jonathan Petropoulos (born January 10, 1961) is an American historian who writes about
National Socialism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Naz ...
and, in particular, the fate of
art looted during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. He is John V. Croul Professor of European History at
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It has a curricular emphasis on government, economics, public affairs, finance, and international relations. CMC is a member of the Claremont Colleges c ...
in
Claremont, California
Claremont () is a suburban city on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles. It is in the Pomona Valley, at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 census it had a popu ...
.
Before his 1999 appointment to Claremont McKenna College, Petropoulos taught at
Loyola College in Maryland
Loyola University Maryland is a private Jesuit university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established as Loyola College in Maryland by John Early and eight other members of the Society of Jesus in 1852, it is the ninth-oldest Jesuit college in the U ...
.
Biography
From 1998 to 2000, Petropoulos served as Research Director for the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets, chaired by
Edgar Bronfman, Sr.
Edgar Miles Bronfman (born June 20, 1929 – December 21, 2013) was a Canadian-American businessman. He worked for his family's distilled beverage firm, Seagram, eventually becoming president, treasurer and CEO. As president of the World Jewish ...
Since 2000, Petropoulos has served as an expert witness in several legal cases concerning Nazi-looted assets, including ''Altmann v. Austria'' (six paintings by
Klimt
Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's pri ...
, including
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
''Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I'' (also called ''The Lady in Gold'' or ''The Woman in Gold'') is a painting by Gustav Klimt, completed between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter's husband, , a Jewish banker and sugar ...
), ''Cassirer v.
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (in Spanish, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (), named after its founder), or simply the Thyssen, is an art museum in Madrid, Spain, located near the Prado Museum on one of the city's main boulevards. I ...
'' (painting by
Pissarro
Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). H ...
), ''
Kann
Kann is a Jewish and Austrian family name, and may refer to
* KANN, a radio station broadcasting
* Caro-Kann ( - Defense), named after Marcus Kann
* ''Netrikkan'', a 1981 Tamil film
* '' Omslag: Martin Kann'', an album by the Swedish band bob hu ...
v.
Wildenstein'' (medieval manuscripts), and ''Rosner et al. v. U.S.A.'' (the
Hungarian Gold Train case).
Petropoulos was featured in ''
The Rape of Europa'', a 2006 documentary on Nazi art looting. He is the author of four books: ''Art as Politics in the Third Reich'' (1996), ''The Faustian Bargain'' (2000), ''Royals and the Reich'' (2006) and ''Artists Under Hitler: Collaboration and Survival in Nazi Germany'' (2014). With John Roth, he is the co-editor of ''Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and Aftermath'' (2005).
[Petropoulos, Jonathan and Roth, John, editors. ''Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and Aftermath'', Berghahn Books, 2005. ]
In April 2008, Petropoulos resigned his position as director of Claremont McKenna College's Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights amidst controversy over the failed restitution of a
Pissarro
Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). H ...
painting looted by the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
s in 1938.
The London-based
Art Loss Register employed Petropoulos because of his acquaintance with
Bruno Lohse
Bruno Lohse (17 September 1911 – 19 March 2007) was a German art dealer and SS-Hauptsturmführer who, during World War II, became the chief art looter in Paris for Hermann Göring, helping the Nazi leader amass a vast collection of plundered ...
, a notorious Nazi art looter who died in 2007.
The looted Pissarro, ''Le Quai Malaquais, Printemps'', was discovered by Swiss investigators in May 2007 in a secret safe controlled by Lohse in Zurich, Switzerland.
After its seizure by Swiss authorities, the painting was independently restituted to an heir of
Gottfried Bermann Fischer later in 2007 by a
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German language, German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constit ...
court,
and ultimately auctioned by
Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémi ...
in New York for $1,850,000 ($2,154,000 with premium) on November 3, 2009.
Following a review, a March 2008 Claremont McKenna College statement said the professor "adhered to applicable contractual and legal obligations" in attempting to arrange return of the painting.
Books
*
Goering's Man in Paris The Story of a Nazi Art Plunderer and His World.''
ISBN 9780300251920
*
Artists Under Hitler Collaboration and Survival in Nazi Germany''.
* ''The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany.''
* ''Art as Politics in the Third Reich.''
* ''Royals and the Reich. Von Hessen Nazi: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petropoulos, Jonathan
1961 births
Living people
Greek emigrants to the United States
21st-century American historians
21st-century American male writers
Art and cultural repatriation after World War II
Historians of Nazism
Claremont McKenna College faculty
Historians from California
American male non-fiction writers