The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History [Hardcover]

Robert M. Edsel (Author), Bret Witter (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 2009

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 Momuments 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

WWII was the most destructive war in history and caused the greatest dislocation of cultural artifacts. Hundreds of thousands of items remain missing. The main burden fell to a few hundred men and women, curators and archivists, artists and art historians from 13 nations. Their task was to save and preserve what they could of Europe's great art, and they were called the Monuments Men. (Coincidentally or not, this book appears only briefly after Ilaria Dagnini Brey's The Venus Fixers: The Untold Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy's Art During World War II, Reviews, June 1.) Edsel has presented their achievements in documentaries and photographs. He and Witter (coauthor of the bestselling Dewey) are no less successful here. Focusing on the organization's role in northwest Europe, they describe the Monuments Men from their initial mission to limit combat damage to structures and artifacts to their changed focus of locating missing items. Most had been stolen by the Nazis. In southern Germany alone, over a thousand caches emerged, containing everything from church bells to insect collections. The story is both engaging and inspiring. In the midst of a total war, armies systematically sought to mitigate cultural loss. (Sept. 3)
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About the Author

Robert Edsel began his career in the oil and gas exploration business. In 1996 he moved to Europe to pursue his interests in the arts. Settling in Florence seeing some of the great works, he wondered how all of the monuments and art treasures survived the devastation of World War II. During the ensuing years, he devoted himself to finding the answer. In the process, he commissioned major research that has resulted in this book. Robert also coproduced the related documentary film, The Rape of Europa, and wrote Rescuing Da Vinci, a photographic history of an art heist of epic proportions and the Allied rescue effort. The author lives in Dallas.

Bret Witter cowrote the bestseller Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World (Grand Central, 2008). He lives in Louisville, KY.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Center Street (September 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599951495
• ISBN-13: 978-1599951492
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.5 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A FASCINATING ACCOUNT OF A NEGLECTED WW2 TOPIC, September 3, 2009

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Paul Gelman "PAUL Y. GELMAN" (HAIFA , ISRAEL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (Hardcover)

The most devastating damage and acts of looting of art objects in the annals of history took place during World War Two.These were perpetrated by the Nazi hordes ,carefully directed by the Fuhrer himself.The Nazi army was perpetually pillaging the finest art in Europe.The vain Goering and Alfred Rosenberg were among the main culprits involved in those brutal crimes against the human creative talent.
Fortunately,there was a Western Allied effort to mitigate combat damage, primarily to structures-churches,museums, and other various monuments.In the course of those brutal years, particularly during 1943-1944,the Allies paid much more attention to finding and protecting cultural items which were stolen from their owners,many of which were Jews.The bosses of the Third Reich transported more than five million cultural objects to many sites in Germany, where they hid them , hoping that one day they would not only be the masters of the world, but also the masters of art.
More than 350 men and women served as Monuments People.This number was culled from thirteen nations.In the end, only a handful of them were active and this book is their story.It was the responsibility of this group to save as much of the European culture as it could.
Mt. Edsel has been living in Florence ,Italy, in the 1990s when he wondered how so many of Europe's monuments and other works of art could have survived this unprecedented orgy of destruction.Thus, he set out to conduct a very careful process of extremely meticulous research which led him ultimately to interview those soldiers who have risked and dedicated their lives pursuing this mission.Many of them were art curators,scholars, educators, architects and archivists in their early forties.There are captivating chapters on the fate of museums in Western Europe, such those in France, Belgium,Holland and Italy.You will meet well-known paintings and the fate of them.Among these are the "Mona Lisa" and "The Night Watch".There arealso letters written by the heroes of this book to various relatives of theirs and some directives given or sent to Nazi officials.
Mr. Edsel's forte in the book is especially interesting when describing what happened during and after 1945 in Altaussee, Austria- a site where many tunnels served as sanctuaries for an enormous number of stolen works, as well as another chapter devoted to the Merkers salt mine in Germany where the largest paintings from the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum in Berlin were placed for safekeeping (along Germany's gold reserve and paper currency).
We are also informed that the castle of Neuschwainstein, which was built by Mad Ludwing of Bavaria in the ninetennth century, served as a key Nazi repository of the greatest works of art stolen from France.It took the Monuments Men six whole weeks to empty it.Some of the stolen art objects belonged to the Rothschild collection in France.
This is an originally told and well-researched chapter with a happy
end, not only because of the outcome of those devoted men and women, but also because they finally got the right historian and researcher who is responsible for bringing up their extrordinary achievements, and for whom humanity shoud be more than grateful.I must warn you: once you start reading the book, you will not put it down easily.
Five points go to this book!

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book that offers an interesting take on the subject of art looting and rescue during WWII, September 21, 2009

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Ann (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (Hardcover)

This is a great read. There are several other books on the subject, but all are very academic in nature and tend to omit the exciting adventure and personal stories of the Monuments Men. As the title suggests, this is really a story about the Monuments Men themselves. Mr. Edsel has done a very good job bringing the characters who are at the center of the story to life. His use of the Monuments Men's personal letters interspersed throughout the book really helps to develop their characters and they allow the reader to truly connect with the Monuments Men.
I also enjoyed seeing some Nazi documents inserted in the first section. Those who are well read on the subject know about the Nazis' plans to confiscated Jewish owned art collections and also Hitler's desire to build the Führermuseum in Linz with his massive collection, but rarely do you get a chance to see the actual documents ordering the massive looting of art.
Mr. Edsel's accounts of the events at Altaussee were obviously well researched as he offers some new opinions and much more detailed explanations than most books offer about what happened in the final days of the war when there were attempts to destroy the mine.
I think anyone who enjoys books on WWII, art history, or even just a good adventure or love story will really like The Monuments Men. It is an engaging book, and it moves quickly so it is easy to finish in a few days.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heroes of Civilization, August 25, 2009

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Kiki - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (Hardcover)

Length:: 1:24 Mins

The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History

The Monuments Men brings to life the untold story of the heroes who risked everything to save the treasures stolen by Hitler and the Nazis. The world owes much to them for their selfless acts. In one word, this story is remarkable and every school library, military base, and political leader should own a copy as a reminder of the legacy of the Monuments Men and of the importance of protecting culture in times of conflict.