It has amassed a list of 278,000 works of art stolen worldwide since it began its centralized file in 1976.
All the old arts and sciences stolen from their minds as if they had never existed.
One answer is that an extraordinary contamination has attached to works of art stolen during the Holocaust.
But contrary to initial reports in the news media, much of the art stolen from museums was relatively obscure and quickly abandoned by the thieves.
He owns many great works of art stolen from the finest museums in the Confederacy, but he intends her as his prize possession.
The incident appears to be a highly unusual instance of art being stolen for political ends.
Monasteries were closed, their collection of arts and books stolen or destroyed by Germans.