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

Now a major motion film! 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 Monuments 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 from Robert Edsel and Bret Witter follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis.

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 The Monuments Men. Robert also coproduced the related documentary film, The Rape of Europa, and cowrote Rescuing Da Vinci, a photographic history of an art heist of epic proportions and the Allied rescue effort. The author lives in Dallas. Jeremy Davidson has appeared extensively on stage, including in the Kennedy Center's production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, in which he starred opposite his now-wife Mary Stuart Masterson. On Broadway, he appeared in Epic Proportions and Off-Broadway in Manhattan Theater Club's La Terasse. Davidson has appeared in films including Salt, Little Chenier, Deprivation, and Skeletons in the Closet, and he wrote and directed the film Tickling Leo. He has appeared on numerous television shows, including Army Wives, Law & Order, Brothers & Sisters, The Kill Point, Cold Case, Without a Trace, Boston Legal, and Ally McBeal. Davidson won an Audiofile Earphones Award for Allan Folsom's The Machiavelli Covenant, published by Macmillan Audio. He has also narrated books including Elise Broach's critically-acclaimed children's book Masterpiece, as well as titles by Robert Edsel, Eric Van Lustbader, and Ray Lemoine.