The Monuments Men: Rescuing Art from the Nazis

Panelists Lucia Allais, Frieda L. Miller Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Assistant Professor at Princeton University, Robert M. Edsel, Author of The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, and moderator Diane McWhorter, Spring 2014 A.M. Rosenthal Writer-in-Residence at The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy were joined by actor Matt Damon via Skype. Panelists addressed the real-life task force of museum directors, curators, and art historians, referred to as the Monuments Men, who entered Germany in the last stages of World War II to recover art pieces stolen by the Nazis. Questions from the audience related to modern day efforts to preserve cultural institutions, especially with regard to pillaging in Baghdad during the Iraq War, as well as the setting and filming of Sony’s Monuments Men.