Hunting Nazi Treasure

My friend Robert Edsel has done a lot for the art world.  He brought a lot of transparency where there was none.  When the Nazi’s took over Germany and Europe, they looted a lot of art.  They didn’t steal only art that belonged to Jewish citizens.  They also looted timeless cultural treasures from Christian churches all across Europe.

In the ensuing mess, it was sometimes impossible to track that art down.

Robert wrote two books about how the US tried to help rectify the problem.  One became a movie, Monuments Men.  The other, Saving Italy is not a movie yet but it should be.  As I get older, I have a new respect for Eisenhower as a classically educated man.  He is the one that installed the Monuments Men into the ranks.  He put the orders out to recruit art curators, historians and then put them in the field.  It is simply amazing and that aspect of battle continues to this day in American forces. Here is a speech Robert dug up that Eisenhower gave after the war. It was at New York’s Museum of Metropolitan Art. It’s powerful.

Robert has a show that has been airing on The History Channel.  It’s called Hunting Nazi Treasure.  I think it’s worth your time and in the show you get to know Robert a little bit and if you watch enough you will grow to really like him and appreciate what he is doing.

Today, we throw the word “Nazi” to describe people we disagree with way too casually.  I think it cheapens the memory of the people the actual Nazi’s murdered, and cheapens the effort it took to dislodge them from power. If you compare someone to a Nazi, you are just not using your brain.

Here is a blurb on Robert’s new show and an interview that aired a bit ago