Monuments Man: The Mission to Save Vermeers, Rembrandts, and Da Vincis from the Nazis' Grasp

(Hardback)

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Description

James J. Rorimer, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, became a leading figure in the art recovery unit known as the Monuments Men, an elite group imbedded in the US Army, who risked their lives during World War II to save Europes greatest artworks from Hitlers grasp. In the film Monuments Men, Matt Damons character is based on Rorimer as he embarks on the worlds most dangerous real-life hunt for stolen artworks with the goal of locating, seizing, and returning the works to their original holders, including museums and private collectors.

This new edition of a book first published in 1950 includes the original illustrations from the first edition plus a wealth of new imagery and ephemera uncovered during extensive research, including WWII photographs, many taken by Rorimer himself, that are accompanied by gorgeous reproductions of many of the Old Masters Rorimer helped save by artists such as Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci, Bruegel, Vermeer, Goya, Velazquez, and van Eyck. Maps created specially for this volume, and other facts about WWII history and geography, add new dimension to a remarkable story of courage, perseverance, and ultimately, triumph.

Reviews

"...It is a vivid boots-on-the-ground memoir that puts you at the center of the action...At the same time the book has the broad historical context of the best scholarly studies. "Monuments Man"is an utterly extraordinaryand extraordinarily importantbook." WALL STREET JOURNAL


Monuments Man provides a moving and thought-provoking account of Rorimers work and the atrocious circumstances in which he and his colleagues were operating. But reading his account anew, it really brought home to me the degree to which it is thanks to the rapid actions and dedication of Rorimer and his colleagues that so many treasures were saved from flooding salt mines, abandoned railroad trucks, fires, appalling humidity and inappropriate storage conditions, and rampant looting by all sides. And, equally, thanks to their scholarship and dedication that these objects were then catalogued and processed and returned to the collections and homes from which they had been taken by the Nazis. Rorimers book provides a moving testimony that if wars and mass murder can be unleashed by a single evil person, aided and abetted by a corrupted political system, the antidote to that tyranny is provided by brave individuals who devote their lives to doing the right thing. Rorimer was one of those men.Thomas Campbell, former Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and current Director and CEO of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Author Bio

James J. Rorimer was curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until 1955 when he was made director of the museum, a position he held until his death in 1966.