Rescuing Da Vinci

If I don't stop listening to NPR, I'm going to go broke! Almost every broadcast features a book or a CD that I want to buy. The book at the right is my latest 'find' from National Public Radio. It's the story of how the Nazis during World War II confiscated art from all the countries they invaded, all for the glory of the Reich and for Hitler's and Hermann Goernig's personal art collections. The picture on the book's cover is of Allied officers recovering one of the rescued masterpieces, Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci. Not only does the book detail how the Nazis looted art from all over Europe, it also reveals how concerned citizens protected and hid famous artworks, often at their own peril. And most amazingly, it also tells the story of how this marvelous art was recovered through the diligent efforts of a group of Allies called the MFAA ( Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives) or Monuments Men for short.


The book contains a splendid collection of black and white photographs from World War II.
The photos chronicle not only Nazi looting, but also the efforts made to safeguard valuable masterpieces from both destruction and from Nazi hands. This picture was taken in the Louvre and shows the very famous statue Venus de Milo being crated up so it could be moved into safe-keeping outside the city. Parisians were in a race against time to protect as much of the art in the Louvre as possible before the Nazi onslaught reached Paris. When they finished, the Louvre was stipped of its treasures; the Grand Galerie was bare. Some paintings proved especially difficult to move. When possible, canvases were rolled and crated. Some paintings, however, were either too large or too fragile to be stored like this and had to be carefully taken from the walls and loaded individually into special trucks. There is a story in the book about a huge painting (16x23 ft) by Gericault that while being moved through Versailles by truck actually became entangled in trolley line wires.

More tomorrow.....