Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation's Treasures from the Nazis Author: Robert M. Edsel | Language: English | ISBN:
0393348806 | Format: PDF
Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation's Treasures from the Nazis Description
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Monuments Men
"An astonishing account of a little-known American effort to save Italy's…art during World War II."—Tom Brokaw
When Hitler’s armies occupied Italy in 1943, they also seized control of mankind’s greatest cultural treasures. As they had done throughout Europe, the Nazis could now plunder the masterpieces of the Renaissance, the treasures of the Vatican, and the antiquities of the Roman Empire.
On the eve of the Allied invasion, General Dwight Eisenhower empowered a new kind of soldier to protect these historic riches. In May 1944 two unlikely American heroes—artist Deane Keller and scholar Fred Hartt—embarked from Naples on the treasure hunt of a lifetime, tracking billions of dollars of missing art, including works by Michelangelo, Donatello, Titian, Caravaggio, and Botticelli. With the German army retreating up the Italian peninsula, orders came from the highest levels of the Nazi government to transport truckloads of art north across the border into the Reich. Standing in the way was General Karl Wolff, a top-level Nazi officer. As German forces blew up the magnificent bridges of Florence, General Wolff commandeered the great collections of the Uffizi Gallery and Pitti Palace, later risking his life to negotiate a secret Nazi surrender with American spymaster Allen Dulles.
Brilliantly researched and vividly written, the New York Times bestselling Saving Italy brings readers from Milan and the near destruction of The Last Supper to the inner sanctum of the Vatican and behind closed doors with the preeminent Allied and Axis leaders: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Churchill; Hitler, Göring, and Himmler.
An unforgettable story of epic thievery and political intrigue, Saving Italy is a testament to heroism on behalf of art, culture, and history.
61 illustrations; 3 maps
- Paperback: 496 pages
- Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (February 3, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0393348806
- ISBN-13: 978-0393348804
- Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
This book is a followup to author Robert Edsel's earlier work The Monument Men, which told the story of a small group of scholar-soldiers dedicated to saving the cultural treasures of countries embroiled in World War II. Most of the secrets of the great art heists were revealed in that book, although this book too has valuable aspects. One of them is to read the book not only for its art history, but also for its detailed rendering of the military campaigns that took place.
The consensus among historians today, a camp exemplified by the great historian Frederick Taylor, is that Hitler had total total control of the German military high command. One of the interesting side debates in Edsel's new book Saving Italy, is how fractured the German leadership really was. For example, we learn that Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of German military intelligence, along with several of his adjutants, were fervent anti-Nazis who didn't merely stand on principle, but actively acted to undermine Hitler's plans at least with regard to the Italian campaign. Canaris, author Edsel maintains, warned the Italians at very high levels of Hitler's hatred of Pope Pius XII, and his desire to raid the Vatican and capture not only documents, but the Pontiff as well.
But whereas Eisenhower gave specific instructions that the great cathedral in Cologne Germany was to be spared the effects of high altitude bombing, in Italy, Pope Pious at the outset received only general assurances from FDR regarding Rome's holy places. Author Edsel's book makes clear that limiting the destruction would be on a best efforts basis.
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