Entartete Kunst

Entartete Kunst means "Degenerate Art". It is also the name of an inventory of art confiscated by the Nazi regime from public institutions in Germany, mostly during 1937 and '38, compiled by the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda) in 1941-2. The Victoria and Albert Museum holds the only known 2-volume copy of the Entartete Kunst to have survived, thanks to a donation from the widow of art dealer Heinrich Robert (Harry) Fischer, who fled Austria to escape the Nazis and came to England. Since the donation in 1996 it has become an invaluable tool for international research into the provenance and whereabouts of the listed artworks. An "X" indicates the work was destroyed. From the end of January, a PDF file of the Entartete Kunst goes online at the V&A (CLICK). As photos of text are rather boring, I've illustrated this post with a photo of Giorgio de Chirico's patinated bronze statue of Hector and Andromache (1968) which strikes me as the sort of artwork that would have received the Nazi raspberry. You can view this sculpture in the recently opened exhibition Giorgio de Chirico: Myth and Mystery at The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art in London, until 19 April (CLICK).