‘Monuments Men’ Explores Hunt for Art Stolen by Nazis

JIM LEHRER:

And finally tonight: a tale of war, art, and an unusual group of soldiers. Jeffrey Brown has our conversation.

JEFFREY BROWN:

It was a drama that largely took place behind the scenes of the great sweep of destruction, violence and final triumph of the Second World War: the systematic looting of art by Nazis and the response and rescue effort by the U.S. and its allies. Much of the work was undertaken by a small group that came to be known as the Monuments Men. And their story is told in a new book by that title. Its author, Robert Edsel, joins me now. Welcome to you.

ROBERT EDSEL, author, "The Monuments Men": Thank you.

JEFFREY BROWN:

To help set up the story, describe the loot — let's talk about the looting first. I said it was systemic. It was a vast scale. How did the Nazis go about it?

ROBERT EDSEL:

Well, this is a scale we have never seen. Hitler was determined to build this museum in his hometown of Linz. It was going to be called the Fuhrer Museum, the greatest museum of the world's greatest works of art. And, of course, they had to have them. They are in these other countries. And they went about systematizing and changing the laws, going about confiscations, not just of Jews', but also other wealthy collectors. And it was systematized from the standpoint of developing lists. These different parts of the Nazi troops were in countries months before the invasion making lists of these works of art they intended to confiscate.

JEFFREY BROWN:

So, in the midst of a war, you wouldn't think that rescuing art would be a high priority with so much going on. How did this effort get under way? How big did it become?

ROBERT EDSEL:

Well, I think the great vision was on the part of a small handful of men and women in this country who, years before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, were in touch with museum colleagues in museums in Europe. And they understood from their colleagues about Hitler's rise to power, how art was being used as a weapon of propaganda. And I think they had the vision to see, at some point in time, the United States was going to become involved in this war. Within weeks after the bombings in Pearl Harbor, museum officials met at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. And they discussed the protection of works of art in this country. But I think, in the months that followed, they could see, the great risks were to the great Western civilization cultural treasures that lay in the path of war.

JEFFREY BROWN:

Now, I said this was a small group of people who became known as the Monuments Men. Some of them came from arts backgrounds, restoration, preservation, and all. There was systematic looting. Then they systematically went about, it sounds like from your book, to try to get it back.

ROBERT EDSEL:

As much as they could do this. I mean, it really was an experiment, an untried experiment. The Monuments Men somewhat of a misnomer. They were museum directors, curators, artists themselves who volunteered for service, average age about 40 years old, most with accomplished careers, many with families. They had every reason to not volunteer and go do this. But they felt it was important to try and preserve the great cultural treasures of Western civilization, lest it become a stain, not just on the United States, but the Western allies, for all time, if the great treasures were destroyed. Their focus initially was on structures — hence the name Monuments Men. But, as they got to Europe, the more and more, they began looking for the missing works of art that weren't in the museums.