George Clooney’s new movie, The Monuments Men, starring Clooney, Matt Damon, and Cate Blanchett, celebrates the legacy of the men and women tasked with recovering and safeguarding Europe’s greatest cultural and artistic treasures during World War II.
The movie, scheduled to debut February 7, 2014, is based on Robert Edsel’s 2009 book, The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History. In conjunction with his writing, Edsel established The Monuments Men Foundation, which seeks to complete the Monuments men and women’s mission to locate all stolen and lost treasures from war torn Europe during WWII and its aftermath. In particular, the foundation seeks to encourage art connoisseurs and institutions to heed the American Association of Museum’s guidelines with respect to Nazi era provenance.
As a theme throughout the book and movie adaptation (of which Edsell is an active producer), Edsel poses the question – is art worth a life? As a parent, I can say “no” without hesitation because I would not want my sons or daughter to sacrifice their safety for an object no matter what the circumstances. But as a novice art historian, I am certainly grateful to the Monuments men and women who worked so feverishly to safeguard our historic treasures and to preserve them for generations to come. We are all fortunate to get the opportunity to enjoy the works of art that have been preserved. Only by preservation, and the juxtaposition of the old and the new, can one fully appreciate the impact these cultural treasures have had on the evolution of fine art and sculpture today.