George Clooney to Direct, Star in ‘Monuments Men’ About Stolen Nazi Art
January 9th, 2012 | 12:07 pm
EXCLUSIVE
George Clooney has started to work on his next project, writing, directing and starring in a big-budget movie about the men who chased down the stolen art of Europe during World War II, he told TheWrap on Saturday.
“The Monuments Men,” which Clooney is co-writing with his producing partner Grant Heslov, will tell the story of a hand-picked group of art experts chosen by the U.S. government to retrieve artwork stolen by the Nazis.
“I’m excited about it,” Clooney told TheWrap at the Palm Springs Film Festival on Saturday. “It’s a fun movie because it could be big entertainment. It’s a big budget, you can’t do it small — it’s landing in Normandy.”
The movie will be based on the book “The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History,” by Robert M. Edsel.
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Tags: Art theft, George Clooney, Hitler, Monuments Men, Movie, Nazis, Robert Edsel, Treasure Hunt
Greetings from Cape Cod. My book, PROVENANCE, was published June 25, 2011. While it is an “international suspense thriller with romantic elements,” it is based on extensive research that began with an interview with Victoria Reed who at the time was the provenance expert at the Princeton University Art Museum. Ms. Reed—now the MFA’s curator of provenance—recommended my reading THE RAPE OF EUROPA by Lynn H. Nicholas and THE LOST MUSEUM by Hector Feliciano. Soon after this, I attended the extensive German Expressionist exhibit at the Neue Galerie in Manhattan and later traveled to the Yale University art museum to attend a dinner and hear Robert Edsal speak about the Monuments Men. I continue to be an avid reader on the subject as I am not only an art enthusiast and collector, I was also alive during part of WWII and have never ceased to be intrigued by how little we knew about what was going on in addition to the actual fighting
I not only own the film, THE RAPE OF EUROPA, but Mr. Edsal’s books, RESCUING
DA VINCI and THE MONUMENTS MEN. Needless to say, I’ll be anxiously following the progress of the film on the subject that George Clooney will be directing.
I’m an art lawyer and a professor of Art Law. I absolutely love your book, “Monuments Men,” and I’m looking forward to seeing the film adaptation. It will be wonderful for the art world heroes of WWII to be recognized on a greater scale. When will this film be released?
I’m the author of “After the Auction,” published in 2010, the story of a woman hunting for a family treasure 52 years after witnessing a posse of Nazis invade her Vienna childhood home. Her pursuit spans three continents. Along the way she encounters threats, a murder, a deal with a devil, and new romance. One character was a fledgling Monuments Men, a private in the Army, and another is a Scottish Monuments Woman.
I am thrilled that George Clooney has recognized the impact of the Monuments Men with as much enthusiasm as those of us who have researched and followed this topic for years.
Thank you for writing about the heroes involved with securing Europe’s artworks during the the Allied Invasion and Occupation. I am a former Airman and presently a law student taking an Art Law Seminar and I’m writing a paper about the United States Military’s Role in Looting Art (“Rucksack Souvenirs”), and have found Kenneth D. Alford’s book on the subject, “The Spoils of World War II,” as well as “The Rape of Europa” fascinating to say the least. However, I believe that for every bad apple out of the men who fought and eventually occupied Germany after the war there had to be a thousand good honest soldiers who wanted to see the art returned to their rightful owners, or a museum, etc. Thank you for exposing a story about those officers who served that purpose honorably.
i love it i am from Austria
Greetings your Joe Rabl(Actor)
Picked up the book last week at a thrift store (Value Village). Started reading with interest, wondered “this should be a movie”. Then I saw your press release this week and went, “It’s those Monument Men”. Today found the blog, then see the story that it is being made into a movie. Excited but nervous that Hollywood seems to politicize the stories. I hope we don’t end up in the Sudan for the storyline. Would have felt better if Ron Howard and Tom Hanks were involved. On the other hand Clooney can do Stout easily.
Edsel’s book provides a few citations to the Monuments Men papers held by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. If I could contact Clooney and Heslov’s reasearch team, I would tell them about those and additional rich archival resources we hold related to the Monuments Men. Full of personal photographs, writings, and correspondence, these are personal archives and oral history interview recordings that contain rich documentation of their work in WWII. These collections are not official government records and tell a much more personal side of the story. The Archives of American Art has the papers of Monuments Men James Rorimer (no, they are not all in private hands as cited in the book,) George Stout (including a microfilmed diary of his World War II MFAA work) and oral history interview/recording, S. Lane Faison(also an oral history interview,) Walter Horn, W.G. Constable, Otto Wittman (including an oral history interview,) and Thomas Carr Howe. These collections and recordings are fascinating and tell the Monuments Men story on an entirely different level than the official record.
Barbara Aikens
Chief, Collections Processing
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
aikensb@si.edu
All of sculptor and Monuments officer Walker Hancock’s relatives are elated that the Monuments Men story will be told to a larger audience. If there is any more information that we can offer please let us know. I’d love to send his autobiography A Sculptor’s Fortunes along to Clooney’s research team as support material. Kudos and heartfelt thanks,
Deanie Hancock French
saimadeane@gmail.com
The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution has the archival papers (9 linear feet) of and a recorded oral history interview with Walker Hancock. We also have the papers of additional Monuments Men and associated oral history interviews.
Barbara Aikens
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
aikesnb@si.edu
love the book like to Play in the film!!! have a very nice day!! Joe Rabl
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4954275/