BOOKS: PICK OF THE WEEK

Jonathan Petropoulos Tue University of Newcastle upon Tyne

Jonathan Petropoulos, the John V Croul Professor of History and director of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at Claremont McKenna College in southern California, is one of the world's leading authorities on the Nazis' view of art. He's helped organise numerous art exhibitions, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Degenerate Art: the Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany in 1991, has written extensively on the subject in Art as Politics in the Third Reich and The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany, and testified before select committees on plundered artworks in the US and UK.

This week he's in Newcastle, to deliver a public lecture entitled "Culture and Barbarism: Nazi Art Plundering and the Search for Looted Works", in which he chronicles the history of Hitler's art-looting programme, analysing the roles played by Nazi leaders and the art experts who trafficked in the stolen works, and assessing recent developments in initiatives to return stolen art to its owners.

Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building, University of Newcastle upon Tyne (0191-222 6136) Tue, 5.30pm, free