Robert M. Edsel Books

On the eve of the 1943 invasion of Italy, just weeks before Allied bombs nearly destroyed Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper in Milan, General Dwight Eisenhower empowered a new kind of soldier to protect mankind's greatest cultural treasures. In May 1944, two unlikely American heroes--an artist and a scholar--embarked from Naples on the treasure hunt of a lifetime, tracking billions of dollars of stolen art, including works by Donatello, Titian, Caravaggio, and Botticelli. As the Germans blew up the historic bridges of Florence and Allied air raids threatened Michelangelo's David, a heretofore-unknown SS general held the art hostage while negotiating a secret Nazi surrender with American spies. A gripping narrative that will appeal to fans of history, art, travel, and adventure, Saving Italy takes us from the battlefields of Monte Cassino to the Vatican and behind closed doors with the great Allied and Axis leaders: Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Churchill; Hitler, Goring, and Himmler.

"As the most destructive war in history ravaged Europe, many of the world's most cherished cultural objects were in harm's way. The Greatest Treasure Hunt in History recounts the astonishing true story of eleven men and one woman who risked their lives amidst the bloodshed of World War II to preserve churches, libraries, monuments, and works of art that for centuries defined the heritage of Western civilization. As the war raged, these American and British volunteers--museum curators, art scholars and educators, architects, archivists, and artists, known as the Monuments Men--found themselves in a desperate race against time to locate and save the many priceless treasures and works of art stolen by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Robert M. Edsel, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Monuments Men, brings this story to young readers for the first time in a sweeping, dynamic adventure detailing history's greatest treasure hunt"--

Now a major film starring GEORGE CLOONEY, MATT DAMON, CATE BLANCHETT, BILL MURRAY, JOHN GOODMAN, HUGH BONNEVILLE, BOB BALABAN, JEAN DUJARDIN and DIMITRI LEONIDAS. What if I told you that there was an epic story about World War II that has not been told, involving the most unlikely group of heroes? What if I told you there was a group of men on the front lines who didn't carry machine guns or drive tanks; a new kind of soldier, one charged with saving, not destroying. From caves to castles in a thrilling race against time, these men risked their lives daily to save hundreds of thousands of the world's greatest works of art. THEY were the Monuments Men, and THIS is their extraordinary true story. 'Remarkable' Washington Post 'Engaging, inspiring' Publishers Weekly