From 1943 to 1945, a civilian task force of 345 Allied academics known as the Monuments Men managed to save 5 million cultural relics.
During World War II , countless artefact , picture , and sculptures from European history ’s most big creators were seized by the Nazis . as luck would have it , many of those steal oeuvre — which are deserving billions of dollars — were recover through the brave efforts of a civilian - military social unit known as the Monuments Men .
The Monuments , Fine Arts , and Archives army corps was a small quislingism of Allied historians , architects , museum curator , and professors , most of who were in-between - aged men with no experience in war . Yet , they work tirelessly through covert and highly dangerous mission to retrieve jillion of invaluable relics .
Their courageous efforts were celebrated in the 2014 film , Monuments Men , which depicted how this ragtag and bobtail crew of academics care to salvage masterpiece concord surety by the Nazis . This is their unconvincing on-key story .
National ArchivesNazi-looted artworks that were stashed inside a church in Ellingen, Germany.
The Rise Of The Reich And Art Theft
National ArchivesNazi - plunder art that were stashed inside a church building in Ellingen , Germany .
Destruction and topsy-turvyness descended upon Europe on Sept. 1 , 1939 , as Nazi Germany invaded Poland . France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany as the Nazis expeditiously plundered every in of Europe . By 1941 , the continent was for the most part under the controller of Germany and its allies Italy and Japan .
Among the dead , destroy , and deported , were precious art . Bombing had destroyed museums , galleries , and moreover , the rightful owners of these historical pieces . The Nazis did not hesitate to loot and slip them .
Thomas Carr Howe/Archives of American ArtArtifacts stolen by the Nazis discovered in the famous Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany.
Before he became the tyrannical leader of Germany , Adolf Hitler was an aim artist . Though he was pass up from an art schoolhouse as a immature man , he continued to admire art and to paint on his own .
He want to build up a private museum called the Führermuseum to house the world ’s most valuable works powerful in his hometown of Linz , Austria . So confident was he about gather a renowned nontextual matter collection that he list the Führermuseum — which was yet to be realized — as the heritor to his own artworks in the event of his dying .
Thomas Carr Howe / Archives of American ArtArtifacts steal by the Nazis give away in the famous Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany .
Thomas Carr Howe/Archives of American ArtMonuments Men carefully prepare Michelangelo’s “Madonna and Child” sculpture to be transported out of the salt mines in which it was stashed.
As World War II crucify , Hitler ’s commanding full general begin to slip art en masse . They formed the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg ( ERR ) , an outfit that was explicitly tasked with the systematic looting of nontextual matter and cultural artifacts across Europe .
The Parisian museum , Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume , was designated as the central storage unit for all the treasures that the Nazis plundered . But the Nazis also hide their loot in saltiness mines across Germany and Austria .
Their precious booty include work by master artists Rembrandt , Picasso , Matisse , Johannes Vermeer , Van Gogh , and countless others . The collection even include famed works like Michelangelo ’s sculpture , Madonna and Child . They were all pillaged from metropolis museums , public art gallery , and private collections .
FlickrAmong the masterpieces recovered by the MFAA was Édouard Manet’sIn The Conservatory, seen here as it was found in a German salt mine in 1945.
Hermann Göring , Hitler ’s right - hand , visited the Jeu de Paume in Paris 20 times to grass for the masterpieces he desired most . He wander up take two railroad railcar full of art for himself alone .
Enter, The Monuments Men
Thomas Carr Howe / Archives of American ArtMonuments Men carefully prepare Michelangelo ’s “ Madonna and Child ” sculpture to be transported out of the salt mines in which it was hive up .
for protect ethnic artefact from the ravage of the war , a extra job force was formed called the Monuments , Fine Arts & Archives Section ( MFAA ) of the Allied Expeditionary Forces .
dub the Monuments Men , the unit was responsible for for protecting cultural relics like churches and museums , assessing damaged artwork inside demolished cities , and initiating restoration task . This was the first time in history that a brigade was coiffure with the specific aim to protect the earth ’s art .
Thomas Carr Howe/Archives of American ArtGeorge Stout (third from left) poses with other members of the Allied art rescue unit.
The Monuments Men were not develop soldiers . They were nontextual matter curators , collectors , academics , and historiographer who perpetrate their life to the recovery of Europe ’s artwork — two of them were even killed in combat while protecting artwork .
As the warfare progressed , however , their obligation expanded to document and retrieving those works steal by the Nazis or preclude their gaining control in the first place . One of their biggest successes waskeepingthe Mona Lisa ” from go down into national socialist deal by expertly cover it across various house in the Gallic countryside .
FlickrAmong the masterpiece recuperate by the MFAA was Édouard Manet’sIn The Conservatory , seen here as it was determine in a German common salt mine in 1945 .
James J. Rorimer/Archives of American ArtMembers of the special task force transporting rescued art.
“ We were charge with much more than we could embrace , ” Sgt . Harry Ettlingersaidduring an interview for the 2007 infotainment version of the bookRape Of Europa .
“ We had no trucks , no jeeps . Nothing but our shoes . And no support of any kind from officialdom . ”
As Charles Parkhurst , Deputy Chief of the Monuments Men , explain of their delegacy : “ There was lots of German artwork hidden where they thought it would be secure during the fighting … And it was our duty to hunt , and obtain , and save . ”
National ArchivesAmerican soldiers with stolen art.
Among the radical ’s most notable member was Rose Valland , an art conservator and the only member of the staff at the Parisian Jeu de Paume museum that the Nazis kept on after they take it over .
The Nazis were incognizant that Valland was silver-tongued in German and that she eavesdropped on them . She ’d then pass along their plans to the Gallic electric resistance . She also worked closely with the Monuments Men to identify graphics stolen from France .
Thomas Carr Howe / Archives of American ArtGeorge Stout ( third from left ) poses with other members of the Allied art saving social unit .
FlickrA Monuments Man leans over a collection of recovered paintings.
Another priceless fellow member of the Monuments Men was George Stout , a World War I veteran and Harvard art curator who pioneer young techniques of conservation .
Stout joined the Monuments Men in December 1944 and wasinvolvedin one of the biggest operations they perform : the art delivery at Altaussee .
Between 1943 and 1945 , the Nazis cached their extensive assemblage of slip art in a meshing of mine across Germany and Austria in Altaussee , Merkers , and Siegen .
National ArchivesA Monuments Man rifles through a collection of stolen Torahs at the Offenbach Collecting Point.
The Allied forces catch wind of the cache on a opportunity tip dropped by a German soldier who had worked under Göring while transport steal fine art to the mines .
Temperature condition in the mines were consistently between 40 and 47 degrees Fahrenheit with 65 per centum humidness , take a crap them the stark surroundings in which to hide valuable art .
The Nazi treasure treasure trove was enormous . In the Mekers salt mine alone , U.S. officials institute 30 miles of gallery and over one billion euros in Nazi Au . In the Altaussee mine were at least 6,577 paintings , 2,300 drawings , 954 prints , and 137 sculptures . Among these were Michelangelo ’s carving , “ Madonna and Child , ” and Jan van Eyck ’s “ The Adoration of the Lamb . ”
Wikimedia CommonsGeneral Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gen. Omar N. Bradley, and Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., inspect treasures stolen by Germans and hidden in a German salt mine in 1945.
James J. Rorimer / Archives of American ArtMembers of the special labor forcefulness transporting rescued artwork .
Pfc . Lincoln Kirstein later wrote of his phantasmagorical experience see Van Eyck ’s chef-d’oeuvre inside a salt mine , “ The marvelous jewels of the Crowned Virgin seemed to attract the light from our flickering acetylene lamp … Calm and beautiful , the altarpiece was , quite simply , there . ”
In total , the Monuments Men recovered $ 3.5 billion worth of art from the Altaussee Strategic Arms Limitation Talks mine alone .
The Legacy Of The Monuments Men
home ArchivesAmerican soldiers with steal art .
Despite the work of the Monuments Men through the end of the warfare , there are still thousands of priceless bit escape today . These diachronic artifacts were most probably destroyed in the warfare though some of them perchance remain hidden out .
Raphael’sPortrait Of A Young Manpainting , reckon to be deserving 100 of millions of dollar mark , is among the valuables still overlook .
fortuitously , the employment of the Monuments Mencontinuesto be carried out through initiative launched by experts in the field of fine art curation and the Monuments Men Foundation . Progress , however , has been deadening .
FlickrA Monuments Man leans over a collection of recovered house painting .
The oeuvre of the Monuments Men went well-nigh leave among mainstream consciousness until 2014 ’s action - comedy , The Monuments Men . The plastic film starred George Clooney , who also signed on as the director , Bill Murray , and Cate Blanchett . The movie received worldwide attention from modern audiences , many of who were introduced to the Monuments Men for the first clock time .
The flick was written found on the playscript , The Monuments Men : Allied Heroes , Nazi Thieves , and the Greatest Hunt in History , by Robert M. Edsel . The moving-picture show takes a number ofartistic autonomy , however .
National ArchivesA Monuments Man plunder through a collection of stolen Torahs at the Offenbach Collecting Point .
Chief among them is how the Monuments Men occur to be . agree to the picture show , the special unit was conceived follow the urging of Frank Stokes , Clooney ’s character who is based on the real - life figure of George Stout .
Although Stout is consider one of the first to agitate for a task force to protect artwork during the state of war , the formation of the original unit was finally done without his direct comment .
Wikimedia CommonsGeneral Dwight D. Eisenhower , Gen. Omar N. Bradley , and Lt . Gen. George S. Patton , Jr. , audit treasures slip by Germans and hidden in a German salt mine in 1945 .
There was also no romanticist web between Rose Valland ( played by Blanchett ) and James Rorimer , the material - life chassis who enliven Matt Damon ’s character , James Granger . The two did civilize a closemouthed relationship during their work with the Monuments Men but it was rigorously professional .
Nevertheless , the film still delivers the most crucial message of all : that without the men and women of the MFAA , many of Europe ’s most prized artifacts would have been lose forever .
Next , see how a priceless 17th - centuryCaravaggio painting was found behind mattresses in an older French attic . Then , show the true history ofArtemisia Gentileschi , the Baroque master painter who take on retaliation on her rapist through her graphics .
