That Matisse in the Pantry? The Nazis Stole It.

Seventy Years after World War II, Europe is Grappling with History, Restitution and Thousands of Pieces of Nazi-Looted Art

In the past few weeks, a Gustav Klimt portrait hanging in a show at London’s National Gallery was denounced as Nazi loot. A museum director in Vienna resigned in protest over his staff’s ties to a new foundation tainted by Nazi art theft. And a Munich art collector was discovered to be hiding perhaps a billion dollars of stolen art.

All of this must seem like a dream come true for publicists of George Clooney’s upcoming film, The Monuments Men, about the motley Allied crew charged with rescuing art from …

The Men Who Made the 20th Century

How Winston Churchill and George Orwell Helped Defeat Fascism and Communism to Create the Modern World

Why on earth am I setting out to write a book about Winston Churchill and George Orwell? What more is there to say? There have been thousands of books written …

A Looting Battle

The Amazing Journey of Gustav Klimt’s Stolen (Then Returned) Masterpiece

How did an interview with the retired owner of a Los Angeles dress shop about her Aunt Adele turn into a tale of sex and art, the Holocaust and restitution, …

To Be a Man

Space, Silence, and a 21-Gun Salute for My Grandfather

1.

In 1941, my grandfather drove across the country from Detroit to California to deliver a car and see the World’s Fair in San Francisco. There were no highways, the car …

A Veteran’s Return

Visiting The Bench Where My Parents’ Future Began

I’ve been trying for years to write something about my mother’s bench in the waiting room at Union Station in Chicago. The bench where she sat and waited the day my …