As ‘The Monuments Men’ Movie Nears Its Opening, KC Celebrates Its Ties
Six of the more than 300 Monuments Men and women either worked for the museum — two later became directors — or maintained strong ties with it. After the war, these people helped the gallery grow and amass one of the pre-eminent collections of Asian art in the world. The gallery even bought an 18th-century painting that the Monuments Men rescued from a bomb-rigged salt mine in Austria.
Now the movie “The Monuments Men,” opening Feb. 7, will chronicle their mission. George Clooney, who co-wrote and directed the film, heads an all-star cast including Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett and John Goodman. The movie is based on the book “The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History” by Robert Edsel.
“The Monuments Men story is an epic part of our shared history that is not common knowledge,” Edsel said. “The Monuments Men are a group of museum directors, curators, art historians and artists — men and women who volunteered for service to be a new kind of soldier, one charged with saving, and not destroying.”
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