In June 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt approved something odd for a war: a small unit of museum people sent to protect art. Allied armies were about to fight their way across Europe, and cathedrals, libraries and galleries stood in their path. Art conservator George Stout, who would later reach the rank of Lieutenant Commander, had been pressing for such a unit since 1941. Now it existed. Officially it was the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section. It held just 345 men and women from 14 countries, mostly curators, architects and art historians in uniform. Soldiers called them the Venus Fixers, because their mission seemed so strange for a combat zone. Their first job was a list. They marked the landmarks that Allied pilots must not bomb. But the Nazis were not only destroying art. They were stealing it, by the trainload. So could a few hundred scholars find it all?
The Monuments Men
In 1943, the Allies formed a unit of 345 experts to protect Europe's cultural treasures from the Nazis.
The Venus Fixers
Frequently Asked Questions
Who were the Monuments Men and what was their job?
They were the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section, a unit of 345 men and women from 13 countries. Most were museum curators, architects and art historians in civilian life. Their job was to protect cultural treasures during the invasion of Europe and later to find and return stolen art.
What did Rose Valland do during the Nazi occupation of Paris?
Valland was a French art historian who worked at the Jeu de Paume museum from 1940 to 1944. She hid the fact that she spoke German and secretly recorded where more than 20,000 stolen artworks were shipped. Her records later led the Monuments Men to major Nazi repositories.
What was the Wiesbaden Manifesto?
It was a protest signed on November 7, 1945 by Captain Walter Farmer and 31 other Monuments officers. They objected to an order to ship 202 German-owned paintings to Washington, arguing it was no different from Nazi looting. Public pressure followed, and the paintings were returned to Germany in 1948.
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