A manuscript of prime and serious scholarship. -Jean-Marc Dreyfus, University of Manchester Even in normal times, the art market can appear shadowy, even shady, and the early 1940s were not normal times. This book brings readers into the labyrinthine network of German, French, and Swiss art dealers who not only fenced goods stolen from museums and Jewish collectors in Nazi-occupied Europe, but also concealed and continued to trade in some of the loot after 1945. The result is a fascinating exploration of a netherworld where luxury and larceny met, and the perils of getting close to it. -Peter Hayes, author of Why? Explaining the Holocaust Jonathan Petropoulos's meticulously researched account of one of the great (and continuing) art thefts in history reads like an Agatha Christie mystery. The degree to which the world of art collectors, gallery owners, curators, and other supposedly cultured people participated in this crime is stupefying. A compelling and maddening page turner. -Deborah Lipstadt, author of Antisemitism: Here and Now