Click to play videoJerusalem: Two new groundbreaking exhibits at the Isreal Museum are grabbing a lot of attention.
Monet Matisse, Cezanne Degas, they both have one thing in common—Artwork looted by the Nazis in World War II.
In a joint exhibition with France, the Israel Museum has opened a collection that is just a fraction of the estimated 100,000 works of art looted in World War II many from Jewish collectors.
"What we are showing are works that are works of art and also works that are stories. Each work that comes to us is tells a different story,” says Israel Museum Director, James Snyder.
The exhibit includes documentary footage of the art plundered and stockpiled by the Nazi regime in an attempt to enforce Hitler's vision of what was considered art-worthy.
Many pieces were stolen, others exchanged, even bought on the open market, some in forced sales.
After the war, some 60,000 pieces were returned, but many could not be traced to their original owners.
Out of both these collections, only three works of art have been restituted.
Thousands still remain unclaimed. Alongside these exhibits, visitors can also access the museum's library of stolen art over the Internet.
The hope is that some of this orphaned art may finally find a home.
For many visitors, the exhibit is beautiful to look at but also painful to see---silent images and haunting stories of a painful chapter in history and art.
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