WWII Mounuments Men - Art History - Drawing on History - KnoodleU
Walker Hancock, Lamont Moore, George Stout and two unidentified soldiers in Marburg, Germany, June 1945.
(Thomas Carr Howe papers, Archives of American Art)

I had the chance to see the movie Monuments Men, by George Clooney tonight. Such a rich piece of our history which I had never heard before. Even sitting in hours of art history classes in art school, I never heard it before. I knew a lot of art was destroyed and stolen. I knew that the US has a large, under lock-and-key, collection of Hitler’s own art. I knew that our soldiers found stolen art, but I had no clue that the US military sent men and women (from many nations) in specifically to recover so much art work.

It shows me, once again, that the WWII generation was truly the Greatest Generation.

“These men not only had the vision to understand the grave threat to the greatest cultural and artistic achievements of civilization, but then joined the front lines to do something about it.” (from TheMonumentsMen.com) 

Today we are very fortunate that these men had the passion and tenacity to rescue some of our world’s greatest treasures.

If you want to read more about it, Smithsonian did an informative article on the Monuments Men.
Or go see the movie, I highly recommend it.

George Clooney’s movie, Monuments Men was based on the book, Monuments Men by Robert Edsel.