November 5, 2024

The Monuments Men (and/by G.Clooney)

After reading an article about George Clooney as an artist-activist, I should refer to The Monuments Men, the next film to be directed by him and released in 2013.

The Monuments Men was a group of specialists who, during WW II, risked everything to save works of art from Nazi plunder.

Robert M. Edsel has collected in his book, The Monuments Men, the story of these people who returned 5 million works of art during the war. The impulse that led to Edsel to write this book was the looting Baghdad suffered as a result of the war, and in 2007, he founded The Monuments Men Foundation (https://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/).

It was not easy for these men and women to save so much art during the second world war: some pieces were locked in the basement of the Hermitage, others took works from coffins (like some of Rembrandt), and the Mona Lisa was saved, hidden in an ambulance. Luckily, they did encounter the aid of some Nazi workers who were not in favor of the unjust and cruel spoliation (https://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2012/04/21/actualidad/1335027270_301791.html).

 

George Clooney has decided to move this story to film. It is fortunate that someone with so much media coverage would use his power not only to sell their image, but to tell these interesting stories. The book The Monuments Men came out here, in Spain, just a couple of weeks ago; I have not read yet, but it is certainly a book that I will not ignore, and I think we can find amazing things on its pages.

 

(cover image property of Robert M. Edsel)

2 Comments on The Monuments Men (and/by G.Clooney)

  1. This is good news, nice to see Clooney tackling important issues in and outside of his work. Will be interesting to see what comes next for him.

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