8/18/2019 Monument Men

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sa ur ay rev ew     a urday January 1 1   the times

cover story

‘Is art worth a single life? It must

In a dar ened room crammed with gilded canvases a Nazis o rm r oo pe r a e s s a me -thrower to   Portrait of a Young

an, the early 16th-centurymas erp ece a r u ed o ap -ael.Thepaintingwasstolenfrom

e a r s o cr a c z ar o r ys a m y a sHitler’s armies scythed their way through

Poland, intent on eradicating Slavic cul-ure and p under ng any ng va ua e

that was considered suitably “Germanic”.escene—   rom eorge ooneyand

Grant Heslov’s new film   he Monumentsen  —   is pure invention. Art historians

ave de a ed e oo ed pa n ngs a e ordecades, but the film is based on the trues oryo e onumen s, neAr sandAr-chives (MFAA) section of the Allied for-ces. This team, formed in 1943 of mainlym dd e-aged, Ang o-Amer can ar sc o -ars,artistsandarchitects,wasshippedinto

urope w e A ed and ngs owardsthe end of the Second World War.

tarring Clooney, Matt Damon, Catea nc e a n d u rr ay , e mov e o -

lows the Monuments Men’s mission tosecure ru ned s or c u d ngs and undown the hiding places of more than fivemillion works of art, antiques and otherprec ousar e ac s oo ed yspec a s Nazartsquadsfrommuseumsandprivatecol-ec ons across urope. e oo y was as-

tonishing in its diversity, from billions ingoldbulliontofamilyheirlooms,fromVer-meerandda nc pa n ngs o es a ned-glass windows from Strasbourg Cathedrala nd e n s a n y c a a r p e ce .

HitlerbombedalotofEnglandbutpartofthereasonhedidn’tbombPariswasbe-cause e wan ed e ar , ooney says.“Hewasstealingartandhidingitinmines.

e

s ar ed oo n g a a nd s e e s o ea e ar . . . e s o e m ons o p eces.

 Justseven strongat theoutset, theMon-umen s en adnopowersexcep oseopersuasion and no resources  — not evenranspor  — excep w a eycou drus e

up. esear de ec veswerea so nsome-thingofahurry:Hitler,abouttokillhimself n s u n e r, ssue d e Ne ro e cr ee ,

commandingthatthe Reich’sbuildings and bridges be destroyed in a scorched earthorder a ex ended o e ar p under.

he stolen heritage had been hastilys as ed deep down remo e m nes acrossthe Reich and high up in Mad King Lud- wig’s Bavarian castle at Neuschwanstein.

xp os veswerese ode

s roy emass verepository at the Altaussee mine in theAus r an A ps. I con a ned e cream ocenturies of European culture.

arlier, in Nazi-occupied Paris, morea n , a r w or s a d e en r p pe d

from the collections of prominent Jewisham es and dea ers nc ud ng e o -

schilds. These were channelled throughtheJeudePaumepavilionneartheLouvre

 w ere a vena   ör ng v s ed regu ar y oflick through the canvases for additions tohis own collection (he had had booty car-riagesattachedto hispersonaltrain) andtoselectthechoicestitemsthatHitlercovet-ed or e p anned rermuseum n shometownofLinz.ManyKlees,Mirósand

cassos  —   cons dered degenera e   — weresimply thrownonto abonfire outside.

appily for the Monuments Men andor urope, ey ad a mo e —   ose a -

land, an apparently homely, easily over-oo edcura or,w o ad eeng ven e o

of spying on the Nazi art transports by

 JacquesJaujard,director ofthe Frenchna-ona museums. Jau ard c ose we . a -

and,p ayedas a re mone n e m yCateBlanchett,tookituponherselftorisk

er e on a da y as s o crea e a secreinventory of the Jeu de Paume shipments.

Valland survived the war but two of theear y onumen s en d ed n ac on. Inthemovie,thecharacterbasedontheBrit-s o c er o na d a ou r s e d w e

interrupting the Nazi theft of Michel-angelo’sMadonnaofBruges fromthecit y’sc a e dr a . e w e mar e s a ue wa sspirited away by night to an Alpine mine.

a a nd s n or ma on , e o nu -ments Men were soon hot on its heels.

Balfour actually died later during the war u mov ng s dea o e ear otheactionservestocentralisethefilm’sul-

ma e ques on: Is ar , even grea ar , worth a life?

“Mypersonalanswertothatis yes,itis,”says e ms co-wr er Hes ov. I s easyfor me to say that sitting here in the com-o r o my o c e u a s w y e se g uy s

 were unbelievably heroic.”Robert Edsel, author of    he Monumentsen: Allied eroes, Nazi hieves, and the

Greatest reasure Hunt in History, on w c e m s ased,agrees.He says sisthequestionheaskedofeverysurvivingMonuments Man he had met. Their an-swersvar ed —mos pu ng eva ueo aGI life above rescuing the  Mona Lisa froma urn ng u d ng. dse says o e or g -nalMonuments Men:“Theyweren’t sacri-

eorge ooneyta s a out snew mon t e att etosaveartromt e az s.   o ert evan as s we ave earnt t e essons

the times |   a urday January 1 1    

be, people died for it’

ficingtheirlivesforapieceofart,theyweresacr c ng e r ves oracauseand opre-serve ese grea par s o our c v sa on.Freedomisnotfree.Itcomesata priceand

a s w y we reasure so muc .ome350peopleeventuallyservedinthe

MFAAinEuropeuntil1951,includingAnne v er e , an ng s woman s v ng,

thelastoftheEnglishMonuments“Men”,) w owas pos ed o eA edar

  repos oryonce hostilities were over. Their work, andGeneral Eisenhower’s order to Alliedroops n I a y a arc ec ura monu-

ments were not to be attacked unless de-manded y m ary necess y, ave ad alastinglegacy.Evenif theweasel wordhereis“necessity”.Theplunderandthe post-war

orror a e com ned consequences oAllied carpet bombing and Hitlerian total war ed, among o er ngs, o e se ngup of Unesco and the passing of interna-tionallawssuchasthe1954HagueConven-

onon e ro ec ono u ura roper yin the Event of Armed Conflict that holdscu ura des ruc on o e a war cr me.

arry Ettlinger, from a Jewish familythat found refuge in the US, is one of a

and u o or g na onumen s en salive. The film’s character Sam Epstein isnsp red y m. As a young so d er -

tlinger was drafted in, almost by accident,asa translatorfortheMFAAin Germany:A e me I d dn ave a deep sense o

 whatI wasdoing. Iwas justdoing ajob and was good a . e ma n egacy s a we were part of a policy that society needs to

produce a peaceful world. We can’t have a wor d nw c groups ry o a eaway ec u u re o o se e y n s o u d n ex s .

However, this post-war cultural settle-men as een unrave ng n recen dec-ades— inBosnia,forexample,orat Bami-yan or the shrines of Timbuktu. Increas-ng y, monumen s and cu ura ar e ac s

are not simply damaged in the conduct of  war; eyare ns ead de era e y arge edfor erasure as part of campaigns of ethniccleansingor forother iconoclasticreasons.

ew uropean arm es oday ave on-umentsMenintheirranks— theAustrianarmy sanexcep onw acoup eo ded -cated cultural property officers. Britain

as none. e

  as s e ns ea d nhands of volunteers such as the membofICOMOS(the InternationalCouncMonuments and Sites) – a paneacademicsand heritageprofessionalsadv ses nescoonwor d er age.I winparallel withi nternationalnon-govmen a organ sa ons suc as ue on preventative work and compiling

strike”

listsofculturalsitesinwarzoneor examp e e ore Na os 11 om

raids on Libya.n e , o we ve r, mo de rn o

ments Men still exist  —   just. Now atSmithsonian Institution, Corine Weg wasa ma or n e AAsec ono earmy’s reservist Civil Affairs command s one o on y a dozen or so reser with a cultural property specialism.  was sent to Iraq in the wake of a US opa on a was a d sas er or arc aeoand monuments, including the loN a o na u se um o I ra q. e gearrived after the museum had been rsacked: “I was somehow in the mista

e e a e u e e d w ou d a r be there, helping the museum pick uppieces,” sherecalls(speakingina perscapacity). “There was no such thing. BShield doesn’t really deploy people a w ere and e N doesn ave a of capability. The UN would take a lop c ures or an assessmen u en  would be forced to leave b ecause didn’thavesecurity.Meanwhile,wear

ere s ng around e museum ooat all this broken stuff and thinking ‘Wn ow e sp en e r me e p n g o c

and police tracking down looted itemWegener too believes that saving a wor uman ves. I a ways answer question,‘Yesformyself’.Atthesametims c nga1 -year-o dou s de emus w an 1 and say ng guard s wyour life . . . Well, how do you explain o e paren s some ng appens

he can’t imagine her museum eaguess gn ngup ora a e e dro e

e or g na onumen s en and accthattheUSarmydoesn’thavethecultproper y spec a s s a wou d e v aanothergroundwar:“Weneedtobeawof cultural heritage as part of milip ann ng us asmuc as uman ar asistance,” she says.

n

  r a n, ereareno even ese edresources. Thegovernmenthas repedlyknockedback requestsfor parliama r y me o r a y e 1 H ag ue o n

tion so, shamefully, the UK is one ofon y deve oped na ons a asn dso. Archaeologists and conservationare continuing to lobby for change.

I s sa d o r ea se, n ge r say s,  wehaven’tlearnt thelesson thatthe Apreac ed n or d ar II  —   o respothercultures.That wasa onetime-eff

dsel agrees: “My whole purpose o

e as 1 years as een o pu eseries to use not only to preserve these mand womens egacy u o do a ar e job in the future of protecting culttreasures. The US and Great Britain

e s andard dur ng e econd Waranditisastandardthatwehaven ved up o s nce and a s nde ens

looneyisfirmabouttheimportanthe film’s message. “The underlying th

a d o e a s a r , s w or d , s rimportant and without it, culture is g

e que

s on rea y s, Is ar wor a And, in some ways, it has to be. Beca

onuments men

eorge ooney ande am n e n ew m .elow, US soldiers rescue

 wor s s o en y ör ng

CLAUDETTE BARIUS; WILLIAM VANDIVERT/TIME&LIFE/GETTY IMAGES