The documentary The Rape of Europa looks at recovering art tresures from the Nazis. (Menemsha Films)
The Rape of Europa (opening June 20 at Landmark's La Jolla Village Theaters ) is a documentary about World War II. Now before you start rolling your eyes and thinking that between PBS and the History Channel you know all you need to know about WWII, let me just say that this documentary serves up something that's genuinely fresh. The Rape of Europa , which played a couple years back at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival, offers something of a detective tale as it seeks to tell the story of the great art treasures that vanished during the war and then turned up years later. The impact of what Hitler and the Nazis did during the war still resonates today as more works of art resurface, heirs sue for restitution, and ownership is disputed. The case of Klimt's portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer serves as bookends to the documentary with one of Adele's relatives seeking to regain possession of the famous portrait that once hung in the family home. (Although the film doesn't point out that the relative, after winning back the painting, quickly sold it for $100 million, but that raises a whole other issue about art.)
