Robert Edsel's Blog

Back in February, I had to cancel my lecture at the University of Pennsylvania Law School due to heavy snowstorms all along the eastern seaboard which made traveling, either by air or by land, impossible. This is still the only speaking engagement I’ve had to cancel (out of more than 50!).

Happily, I am pleased to announce that this lecture was rescheduled and will be held on April 21 from 4:30 – 5:30 in S-240A and is open to everyone. I will be discussing my current book, “The Monuments Men” which details the extraordinary experiences this small group of Allied soldiers encountered in protecting, saving and returning Europe’s priceless artistic treasures. This lecture is sponsored by Penn Law Association in the Arts.  A reception and book signing is to follow. For more information, please click on the link.

University of Pennsylvania Law presents lecturer Robert M. Edsel

Today, The Monuments Men Year-End Newsletter for 2009 was released to the general public. Inside this newsletter, you can read about the various creative content we have produce, our ongoing engagement with the public through the media to bring much need attention to the Monuments Men, the various honors bestowed upon the Monuments Men Foundation, and all the incredible memories bringing this story to life.  Many thanks to all that have worked on this project through the years.

Please take a minute to read the The Monuments Men Year-End Newsletter.

If you would like to sign up for future newsletters, please click here (fill out form on the right side to submit).

The Harvard Magazine wrote a wonderful article about The Monuments Men book and the many connections that the Monuments Men had with this university.  The editors contacted us a couple of weeks ago about writing an article on the men and the book and we were delighted to help them with this excellent article.  It’s remarkable how this small group during World War II has so many connection both withe university and cultural institutions across the United State. Click here to read the full article: The Art Army: Harvard’s Monuments Men at Work

With veteran John Pistone during our first visit

Today the Monuments Men Foundation announced the discovery of an album containing photographs of Hitler’s most beloved works of art by German painters destined for his Führermuseum in Linz, Austria.  This item, formally called the Gemaldegalerie Linz Album XIII, was taken by an American soldier from Hitler’s home in Berchtesgaden in early May, 1945.  The veteran, Mr. John Pistone, in a wonderful act of grace, has worked with the Monuments Men Foundation to identify what the album was and it’s return to Germany.

For the full story please click on the link to the Associated Press story. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_hitler_s_album)

Today’s news was extraordinarily well received.  In fact, it was the most popular, most viewed and most emailed news article on Yahoo! today.  I hope and believe that this news, and the example set by Mr. Pistone, will bring the much needed visibility to our efforts to finish the mission of the Monuments Men and assist others who may be in the possession of items “liberated” or stolen during the World War ll period.

We set aside two days a year to honor our Veterans:  Memorial Day and Veterans Day.  But other days of the year border on such importance…today is one of them.  More than 2,400 men and women were killed on this date 68 years ago as they innocently went about their duty and lives that Sunday morning.  It was a dastardly act by Japan and it’s warlords as they sought to knock out the Pacific fleet of the United States in one swift blow.  Within days the United States was at war with Japan and its allies, Nazi Germany and Italy.  World War II  had begun in earnest.

Less than three weeks later a meeting would take place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City that would have far reaching implications.  Visionary leaders such as George Stout, Paul Sachs, and Francis Henry Taylor, expressed concern about protecting this country’s cultural treasures from concerns about a Japanese invasion of the west coast and Nazi bombings on the east coast.  In time these specific fears subsided but were replaced with an even greater concern:  how to protect the cultural treasures of the western world from the path of war that inevitably would lead to the doors of the Reichschancellery in Berlin.

Fortunately we live in a world today that was spared the “what if” consequences of the Monuments Men never having been created. We can visit the world’s great museums and see the vast majority of the greatest accomplishments of man’s creative genius because of their vision and sacrifices.  Pearl Harbor set them into motion.

So on this day, let us remember the brave men and women who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor. May we also acknowledge those who acted and set in motion one of the most benevolent efforts in the history of mankind, an effort that preserved much of the accumulated art, music, and culture produced by thousands of years of civilization, from the path of war:  the Monuments Men and women.

One of the Monuments Men we admire most is Walker Hancock. Walker married his wife, Saima, on December 4, 1943 in a chapel at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. He was shipped out to Europe just three weeks later. He wrote her a very touching letter for their first anniversary, which is shown below. This letter, and many others like it, are included in The Monuments Men.

Letter from Walker Hancock

To his new wife, Saima

December 4, 1944

Precious Saima,

This is the great day of our lives—the anniversary of the happiest one in mine. And if I loved you a year ago today, I do so many times more this fourth of December. For even though we have spent such a small part of this year together, we have been together the whole time in the best sense, and you have helped me and nourished me through these interesting but trying months in a way that you would hardly have had the opportunity to do in a happy normal life at home. That will come, and our joys will be boundless, but what you have been to me during these months of separation is something that I never could have imagined without the experience. Your letters have been my mainstay. Just the simple account of what you do and think—and between letters I think about you.

Today has been rather a grind—and one of those days when one seems to have just missed accomplishing something all along the line. But I hope I’ll be able to make up for it during the week. One just has to learn that things have to be done a little bit at a time in the army—and it doesn’t pay to bite off more than can be chewed. The howling mob that moved in on us while we were in Luxuembourg have now left – and  we have a few “casuals” that drift in and out. It’s much better, but I still want those ear plugs. Tonight I’m trying sleeping in a bed with a mattress! What good news about Teddy! I’m so glad he has his wings and i’m proud, though I didn’t doubt for a minute that he would win them.

There’s a Polish soldier sitting on the bunk beside me, saying that this will be his sixth Christmas in the army and away from his people. He’s pretty discouraged—but we are guaranteeing him this will be the last away from home.

Tomorrow or the next day I expect to see George Stout. I wonder if he will be coming back to the First Army. I hope so, for there is more work than I can keep up with at present. Worlds of love to you—you sweet creature—I love you—

Walker

Jack Reiss at Alabama Booksmith Book Store

I spent the day in Birmingham, Alabama signing books and delivery a lecture at the Birmingham Museum.  It was a lunchtime event which is usually pretty difficult for people to attend. Not so today: more than 150 people enthusiastically appeared, full of great questions and comments.  At each such event I’m reminded of how special the story of the Monuments Men truly is.

My day began at Alabama Booksmith Book Store where I signed more than 400 books for store owner Jake Reiss.   What a book store!  Most all of his books are first editions signed by the author!  I bought two books myself!

Jake has developed some very innovative ways to promote his business and stay ahead of the rapidly changing buying patterns of his customers.  He is so enthusiastic about books AND HIS CUSTOMERS!  It is a joy to be in his store.  And wonderful to have been so welcomed by the citizens of this great southern city!

We apologize for the inconvenience regarding the last blog posting about Robert’s speaking engagement at the Speed Art Museum. This event is invitation-only and therefore not open to the public. Again we apologize for the inconvenience and hope you can attend another of Robert’s speaking engagements in the future.

Thank You

Perhaps no greater speech has ever been delivered on a somber put critically important occasion as President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. This speech, numbering no more than 269 words, perfectly captured the moment and brought honor to the fallen soldiers of the North and South and the respective ideals which they were fighting to preserve.

One of the great experiences of visiting Washington, D.C. is to stop by the Lincoln Memorial and re-read these words etched in stone on the north wall near the magnificent sculpture of the President… which now oversees the World War II Memorial.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate…we can not consecrate…we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

I can think of no more fitting end to the week then remembering our friend, S. Lane Faison Jr., a man we all deeply admired and miss. As a tribute to Lane and his remarkable life, we created a short film, about two minutes in length which you may see by clicking on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/RobertEdsel#p/a/u/2/JLqYev6Thck