Russia Launches Online Database for Looted Art

MOSCOW—The Russian government has launched a Web-based database listing details of 46,000 artworks and thousands of books, manuscripts, and letters looted by Nazis during World War II, reports Bloomberg. The Web site, www.lostart.ru, is in Russian, with printed editions in English. The Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 and systematically plundered its art museums, damaging an estimated 423 Soviet museums, 158 of which were in the Russian republic.

Anatoly Vilkov, deputy director of the Russian government's cultural watchdog, Rosokhran-Kultura, says he has evidence that some of the works are in private collections in the United States, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe.

According to Rosokhran-Kultura, the Russian government, has 250,000 artworks looted from Germany after the war, when victorious Soviet troops looted so-called German, Austrian, Polish, and Hungarian cultural institutions. Much of this "trophy art" is being held in various Russian museums. Vilkov said it's "compensation" for Russian losses.