The Vanished Collection by Pauline Baer de Perignon

The Vanished Collection by Pauline Baer de Perignon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The fascinating story of one woman's search for her great-grandfather's lost art and true-life story.

When a cousin mentioned that the Nazis might have pillaged their great-grandfather's art collection during their occupation of Paris in World War II, author Pauline Baer de Perignon was caught entirely off-guard. At no time in her life had she ever heard a whisper of such!

Intrigued, she began to research her great-grandfather's collection and, in the process, discovered the truth about her great-grandparents' lives during the occupation. She'd always understood they'd come through that dark time in history pretty much unscathed, and that just wasn't the case at all.

The Vanished Collection is a wonderful tribute to the author's great-grandfather, renowned collector of Impressionist art, Jules Strauss. It is also an exciting tribute to perseverance and dedication to researching the truth. I found the author's recounting of her experiences easy-to-read and absolutely fascinating. I was so caught up in her story that time flew by. I was immersed in her search.

The difficulties she ran into getting the museums responsible for preserving and reuniting the stolen art with their rightful owners or their heirs was eye-opening. So little concerted effort appears to have been put into the process of returning these sentimental, not to mention priceless, items to where they belong.

Also, the story is a heartbreaking, sobering reminder of the Jews who lost everything: their property, possessions, families, and lives. I hope this book spurs other descendants to question what family treasures may be locked away in some museum, safe yet forgotten. I know that I want to read more about this topic now.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the publisher and France Booktours.

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