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2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
A Spectacular Book Jan 25, 2010
This is very, very special--a 300 pp. picture book, illustrating the theft, storage and recovery of thousands of masterpieces of European art. Note: it is essentially a picture book, not a long and complex bit of narrative history. There are narrative passages at the head of each chapter, describing the process or succession of events that are then illustrated by photographs and photographic reproductions of artworks. This is not just about art. It is a book about war and the place of art within war. It is a book about the Nazis and their pomps and works. It is a story of heroism and, to some degree, of engineering, in finding, recovering, replacing and rebuilding what had been stolen, hidden or destroyed.
The photographs are very powerful. Interlaced with them are reproductions of contemporary documents and quotations from the players involved. The book is informative, moving, tragic and inspirational. The organization of the materials is very clever, particularly the juxtaposed images of the art in situ, as it is stored, as it is recovered, as it exists now (in vivid color).
Allow an extended period of time for reading/viewing; once you start you will not want to stop. Welcome to a world of nightmare, eventual triumph and exquisite beauty. This is a don't miss and Amazon's current price is a great bargain. Highly recommended.
Review from Art Book News at Blogspot Jan 11, 2010
Robert Edsel's book "Rescuing Da Vinci" chronicles one of the most fascinating and tumultuous periods in Art History. During World War II the Nazi state engaged in a massive and systemic plunder of art treasures, stripping objets d'art from public galleries, churches, libraries and private owners. This is a dramatic story of how the custodians and officials in a variety of European countries sought to protect their collections from discovery, theft or damage from aerial bombardment. And the tale reveals how the ruthless machinery of a totalitarian state was deployed to steal, or acquire `gifts' and `loans' through thuggery and threat.
In this relatively short episode in history a vast proportion of the greatest art treasurers of Western Civilisation were confiscated (one estimate is 1.5 million objects with 100,000 of museum quality still missing). Many of the works passed into private ownership or control of avaricious Nazi officials, with Herman Goring particularly notorious as an instigator and beneficiary of the mass theft. Adolf Hitler himself was the principal director of this whole affair, personally involving himself in planning of exhibitions of the trophies and sketching plans for a `Fuhrer Museum' in his home town of Linz where he ultimately planned to house much of the plunder.
This story has been told before in other books in greater detail, but Edsel brings the drama to life in a very well illustrated and decent format book. This book was an independent publishing effort and yet Edsel has made few economies in producing a very beautiful tome. The writing is not conventional history treatment, it's much more zippy, with Edsel weaving the tale together through a concourse of captioned photographs, illustrations of artworks and reproductions of wartime documents. While this is mainly a story of European tragedy, the author has a patriotic concern to highlight the part played by the United States in seeking to find, identify and repatriate stolen art to their proper owners (the Allied Armies formed a military unit that became better known as the "Monuments Men" or "Venus Fixers" among the troops). Allied Commanders including General Eisenhower issued a number of orders barring the traffic or export of artworks, directing resources o support the return of works to their rightful owners and asking that great buildings and architectural monuments be spared where possible from the collateral damage of war.
By the war's end the Allied treasurer hunters had found over 1,000 repositories for the stolen works of art, including the Alt Aussee salt mines containing more than 6,500 paintings and Neuschwanstein castle which housed over 6,000 articles including jewellery and fine furniture. Where the Soviet forces discovered horded Nazi loot, many of the rescued goods were brazenly stolen a second time.
To this day the consequences of the Nazi art binge are still with us, as new claimants come forward every year seeking return of artworks stolen from their families, or as museums and galleries discover that the patrimony of certain objects in their collections is tainted.
As art books go this is an unusual one. It is not the definitive history of these events (much more could be said of some of the great collectors who were victims of theft, or of works that remain missing or in dispute), but it is the best illustrated history of this epic tale of greed, audacity and devastation. The satisfying epilogue to this story is that Mr Edsel is fortunately a dedicated/obsessive fellow and has been pressing on with a range of projects to tell other aspects of this quite significant story. (review by Dan Clode at[...])
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
One fantastic book, I really enjoyed it! Feb 27, 2009
This is by far, one of the most interesting books I've ever read about WWII. I took it with me to Jamaica to read on the plane & on the beach. It has amazing pictures, and some very informative text, however, I found it striking that, while the media & most teachers always portray Hitler & the Nazis as a bunch of buffoons, they took a country that had lost just about everything in WWI, were bullied by the Soviets, & the rest of Europe afterwards, had practically no resources or money, had been living in a brutal recession for years & somehow with the genius of its leaders, almost single handily took over the world. If it weren't for the Grace of God & the United States being in a depression itself & needing a war to get us back on track, German would probably be the worlds official language today. While no-one can justify the brutality of their mission & a lot of their tactics, the current leaders of the world can hardly be held up as examples of genuine behavior themselves. This book is a great read, just read between the lines, these guys also had great taste in art! And they gave us the Volkswagon Bug!
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Great Photographic History Aug 07, 2008
"Rescuing Da Vinci" by Robert M. Edsel.
Subtitled: Hitler And The Nazis Stole Europe's Great Art, America And Her Allies Recovered It". Laurel Publishing, LLV, Dallas, 2006.
After borrowing this book from the Plymouth Public Library, I was initially disappointed when I opened the book. It seemed that the book was all pictures and NO text! The book has some 300 pages and I would estimate that there are some 25 full pages of text, including the index and bibliography in the back of the book. Having said all this, it is my opinion, after having read the book that all those pictures were required to tell the complete story.
Page after page, photo after photo, I would find a painting or sculpture that I recalled from my art history classes, which was a long time ago. The book would show the 1940s picture on one page, with a person, perhaps in a period German uniform, "collecting" the item. And, then, on the facing page, often in full color, would be a present day view of the object. See, for example, pages 204 and 205, were Jan Vermeer's "The Artist's Studio, 1665-1666" is displayed on page 204 in black and white and in full color on page 205. This mixture of historical fact and present day view is carried out throughout the book.
The book begins with an explicit condemnation of the Nazi conquest. It is shown that the Nazi Germans prepared rather extensive documents identifying the art works of various nations and earmarking those works for transportation to the Third Reich. This is an amazing example of the arrogance of the Teutonic thoroughness of Hitler, Göring and the rest of the Nazi leadership. Speaking of Göring, it would seem that at the height of the war, his country "cabin, called "Carinhall", probably had more and better art than most museums in the western world. Page 45 records that Göring had a collection of approximately 1700 paintings. Sadly, there are too many pages in the book showing or identifying works of art that had been destroyed or had been lost. Page 285 shows, for example, Raphael's "Portrait Of A Young Man, 1516", which is still missing.
Still missing is the so-called "Amber Room" which was once located in the city of Königsberg in what was once Prussia. There are entire books, available on Amazon, dealing with the lost Amber Room. With the emphasis on the sins of the Third Reich, little notice is taken of the fact that the Soviets stole the entire city of Königsberg, which is now called Kaliningrad. In fact, Kaliningrad is a tiny piece of Russia, (the so-called Kaliningrad Oblast) stuck between Poland and Lithuania. In Kaliningrad, Russian is the official language and the postage stamps are Russian. Interesting.
And, of course, on a more mundane, but very telling level, there are the 5000+ bells that were stolen and the Dutch trolley cars being prepared for reparation to the Netherlands.
4 of 5 found the following review helpful:
A bit of generally unknown history Feb 27, 2008
I have always been a museum addict. If the Metropolitan Museum of Art would let me place a cot somewhere, I would probably take up housekeeping. So, it was extremely rewarding to read this story of how so much of the stolen art from WW2 was found, protected, recovered and finally returned to rightful owners. These "Monuments Men" should all have received medals. The world owes much to them for making so many artistic marvels again available.
The illustrations are quite good. Many are available in other sources but so many, at least for me, were viewed here for the first time. The attempts to protect many objects - e.g., St. Marks in Venice - were also interesting. When I visited there a few years ago I was very appreciative.
Mr. Edsel is to be commended.
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