Metacritic reviews

This mesmerizing morality play, rich in rare archival footage and complete with heroic Allied saviors, merits a full-fledged arthouse run before reaching larger PBS and cable auds.

Impressive in scope if unremarkable in style, The Rape of Europa provides a chronology of World War II as it was experienced by "David," "Mona Lisa," and other artistic treasures the Nazis plundered.

All in all, an exciting and terrifying new perspective on an era you probably thought you understood.

It’s a History Channel or PBS special that’s leaped the fence from the boob tube onto the big screen. And it’s riveting.

A surprisingly vast and involving topic.

Fascinating facts and testimony.

With impressive clarity and sweep, The Rape of Europa recounts the Nazi theft and destruction of European art and architecture.

A veteran who was in the Allied force trying to drive Germans out of a landmark Italian monastery asks, "What is more important, a great piece of art or a human life?" That it has taken more than 60 years to get this incredible story told answers the question.

Unfortunately, most of the two-hour documentary is devoted to annotating what the Nazis stole for both their state and personal collections. The movie doesn't dramatize this crime -- it catalogs it. With deadening monotony.

Uninspired in style, and Joan Allen's narration is dry.