In my Novel, The Last Train from Paris, there are several scenes where my hero, Jean-Luc, is confronted with Nazi theft of important works of art. Being a painter himself, and the son of a Louvre janitor, Jean-Luc is among the first to notice the disappearance of his favorite works, howling in pain in front empty frames and suddenly bare walls.
But while the scene may be fictional, the Nazi art theft was far from it, as the recent documentary film, The Rape of Europa, reveals. Here’s a quote from the film’s website:
“For twelve long years, the Nazis looted and destroyed art on a scale unprecedented in history. But young art professionals as well as ordinary heroes, from truck drivers to department store clerks, fought back with an extraordinary effort to safeguard, rescue and return the millions of lost, hidden and stolen treasures.”
Some sources estimate that the Nazi’s stole up to 1/5th of Europe’s greatest works of art. So Jean Luc, an artist in wartime Paris, finds himself dramatically confronted with this theft. But what can he do? He’s just a painter…
Jean-Luc paints forgeries of the Louvre’s greatest pictures, and then supplies those forgeries to the French Resistance who sneak into museums and substitute the forgeries for the originals.
How this new role for Jean-Luc plays out amongst his recently formed romance, his own personal artistic growth and struggles, and the increasing danger for him within occupied Paris is only for those who read the novel, but I can say this:
It’s incredibly satisfying, as a historical novelist, to see the history that you’ve tried to animate, suddenly become a topic of discussion within the popular culture through the efforts of a talented documentary director or non-fiction author – especially when the press recognizes the inherent drama, as in this quote from a SF Weekly review:
“Fascinating… has enough drama for at least 3 Hollywood films.”
And indeed it does.
