At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Monuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture. Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis.
The Monuments Men | Official Site
- www.monumentsmen.com/
- The Monuments Men were a group of men and women from thirteen nations, most of whom volunteered had expertise as museum directors, curators, art ...
The True Story of the Monuments Men | History | Smithsonian
- www.smithsonianmag.com/.../true-story-monuments-men-1...
- Smithsonian
- Feb 7, 2014 - "Without the [Monuments Men], a lot of the most important treasures of ... They summoned the only Monuments Man for the job, George Stout, ...
- In-depth articles
The Art Army
- Harvard Magazine
- The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, by Robert M. Edsel, with Bret Witter, narrates the background, actions, and achievements of these soldiers.
- Explore: monuments
Monuments Man in War, Conservator in Peace
- The New York Times - Mar 2014
- BY now, much of the moviegoing world is familiar with “The Monuments Men,” an art-historical film that sees George Clooney, Matt Damon and other stars swashbuckling around ...
Monuments Men: A Baltimore writer learns her father ...
- The Washington Post - Jun 2014
- This time he told me George Clooney was working on a movie titled “The Monuments Men,” which focused on the recovery of art plundered by the Nazis. Wells, a leading authority on ...
- + More in-depth articles
Archives of American Art
Monuments Men: On the Front Line to Save Europe's Art, 1942–1946
February 7 to April 20, 2014
Washington, D.C. at the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery
Join us for gallery talks about the exhibition: March 13 and 28, at 1:00 p.m.
During World War II, an unlikely team of soldiers was charged with identifying and protecting European cultural sites, monuments, and buildings from Allied bombing. Officially named the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) Section, this U.S. Army unit included art curators, scholars, architects, librarians, and archivists from the U.S. and Britain. They quickly became known as The Monuments Men.
Towards the end of the war, their mission changed to one of locating and recovering works of art that had been looted by the Nazis. The Monuments Men uncovered troves of stolen art hidden across Germany and Austria—some in castles, others in salt mines. They rescued some of history’s greatest works of art.
Among the holdings of the Archives of American Art are the papers of Monuments Men George Leslie Stout, James J. Rorimer, Walker Hancock, Thomas Carr Howe, S. Lane Faison, Walter Horn, and Otto Wittman. These personal archives tell a fascinating story.
This exhibition complements a project to enhance access to the Archives’ collections for World War II provenance research funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Related blog posts:
Voices of the Monuments Men
Audio excerpts from the Archives’ oral history interviews.
See more: oral history interview podcasts
Otto Wittmann on the Art Looting Investigation Unit and postwar restitution work:
Art: surviving war, fraud, & theft
AUTHOR Brey, Ilaria Dagnini
TITLE The Venus fixers : the remarkable story of the Allied soldiers
who saved Italy's art during World War II
Documents the contributions of a motley team of art historians, curators, and passionate amateurs who were appointed by Allied forces to save master works of European art from destruction during World War II, describing the volatile conditions under which they safeguarded thousands of years worth of masterpieces at the risk of their own lives.
AUTHOR Dolnick, Edward,
TITLE The forger's spell : a true story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the
greatest art hoax of the twentieth century
As riveting as a World War II thriller, The Forger's Spell is the true story of Johannes Vermeer and the small-time Dutch painter who dared to impersonate him centuries later. The con man's mark was Hermann Goering, one of the most reviled leaders of Nazi Germany and a fanatic collector of art.
AUTHOR Edsel, Robert M.
TITLE Saving Italy : the race to rescue a nation's treasures from the
Nazis
Describes two Americans in Italy--one an artist, the other a scholar--who tracked down and protected historic artwork worth billions by Michelangelo, Donatello, Titian, Caravaggio, and Botticelli in advance of the approaching Nazi army in 1943
AUTHOR Felch, Jason.
TITLE Chasing Aphrodite : the hunt for looted antiquities at the
world's richest museum
Drawing on a trove of confidential museum records and frank interviews, Felch and Frammolino give a fly-on-the-wall account of the inner workings of a world-class museum and tell the story of the Getty's dealings in the illegal antiquities trade. Fast-paced and compelling, "Chasing Aphrodite" exposes the layer of dirt beneath the polished facade of the museum business
AUTHOR Kirkpatrick, Sidney.
TITLE Hitler's holy relics : a true story of Nazi plunder and the race
to recover the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire
When covert Nazi agents take the Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire during the waning days of World War II, Generals Eisenhower and Patton task Lieutenant Walter Horn with recovering the ancient treasure before its possessors can use it to revive the horrors of the defeated regime
AUTHOR Mould, Philip.
TITLE The art detective : fakes, frauds, and finds, and the search for
lost treasures
A leading authority on British portraiture and expert for the BBC's Antiques Roadshow shares favorite stories from his career while imparting professional insights into detecting and restoring valuable art, in an account told through chapters that focus on significant painting discoveries.
AUTHOR Müller, Melissa,
TITLE Lost lives, lost art : Jewish collectors, Nazi art theft, and the
quest for justice
A book with 200 color and black-and-white photos and illustrations relates the tragic stories of 15 Jewish art collectors whose art and lives were stolen by the Nazis, as well as the gripping drama of their heirs' attempts to recover their inheritance.
AUTHOR Nicholas, Lynn H.
TITLE The rape of Europa : the fate of Europe's treasures in the Third
Reich and the Second World War
Describes the systematic looting and destruction of Europe's vast art treasures, by the Nazis and the ravages of World War II, and examines the salvage and restitution efforts of curators, citizens, and "monuments officers" following the war.
AUTHOR Scott-Clark, Cathy,
TITLE The Amber Room : the fate of the world's greatest lost treasure
When the Nazis invaded Russia, they removed and hid the legendary Amber Room built by Catherine the Great in her St. Petersburg palace. Immersing themselves in Cold War intrigues, London-based journalists traveled widely to investigate this lost treasure's fate. Maps and b&w photos situate the geographic and historical contexts.
