Jonathan Lopez reviews The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter, and Ilaria Dagnini Brey’s The Venus Fixers: The Remarkable Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy’s Art During World War II
During the darkest days of World War II, a ragtag band of British and American art scholars braved the battlefields of Europe to rescue thousands of cultural treasures from Nazi pillage and the collateral damage of armed conflict. These “monuments men’’ propped up collapsing buildings; repaired battle-scarred frescoes and mosaics; guided Allied bombers away from world-renowned libraries and cathedrals; and tracked down the secret hiding places of masterworks by artists such as Rembrandt, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci. But today their story – one of the grandest yarns of the Greatest Generation – remains little known outside the art world.
Two new books aim to remedy that situation. “The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History,’’ by writer and documentary film producer Robert Edsel, offers a stirring treatment, geared to the broadest of popular audiences. “The Venus Fixers: The Remarkable Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy’s Art During World War II,’’ by journalist Ilaria Dagnini Brey, presents a more nuanced account – much of it based on archival research – but with a narrower focus, dealing exclusively with operations on the Italian peninsula. (…more at Boston Globe website…)