During and following WWII, a special multinational group of
more than 350 men and women served behind enemy lines and
joined frontline military units to ensure the preservation,
protection, liberation and restitution of the world's
greatest artistic and cultural treasures. This "band of
unsung heroes," formally referred to as the Monuments, Fine
Arts and Archives (MFAA) section, or commonly referred to as
the "Monuments Men," worked tirelessly to track down,
identify and catalogue millions of priceless works of art
and irreplaceable cultural artifacts, including masterpieces
by Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Vermeer, that had
been stolen by Hitler and the Nazis.
The story of the Monuments Men, including their heroics and
exploits in rescuing and safeguarding many of the world's
greatest artworks for the benefit of mankind, has never
before been fully revealed until now, with the publication
of Rescuing Da Vinci, an exhaustively researched historical
account written by Robert M. Edsel. Mr. Edsel can best be
described as a successful athlete and business entrepreneur
turned modern day "Indiana Jones." Mr. Edsel has dedicated
the last five years of his life to painstaking and
far-reaching research to unravel the secrets of the
Monuments Men and, in so doing, to make the world aware of
their unprecedented contributions, both during and after
WWII, and to ensure that these unsung heroes receive
appropriate recognition from the United States government,
as well as the broad public.
The detailed documentation, inventories and photographs
developed and catalogued by the Monuments Men during and
following World War II, have made possible, and continue to
make possible, the restitution of stolen artworks of to
rightful owners and their descendents. Long after WWII, many
Monuments Men went on to become renowned directors and
curators of preeminent international cultural institutions,
including the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Toledo Museum
of Art and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, among many
others, as well as professors at esteemed universities such
as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, New York University, Williams
College and Columbia University. Others became founders,
presidents, and members of associations such as the New York
City Ballet, the American Museum Association, the American
Association of Museum Directors, the Archaeological
Institute of America, the Society of Architectural
Historians, the American Society of Landscape Architects,
the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National
Endowment for the Arts, as well as respected architects,
archivists, artists and musicians.
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