Me to wonder. So i asked friend, whats the answer . I said, you live here, you should know. And evolved this way, having just out of curiosity. I couldnt of course have seen at the beginning, having three books about and it now a feature film. The Monuments Men foundation continuing these men and womens work but its been an incredible privilege for me to represent this remarkable heroes, five only who are still living. An amazing experience. Host why did you move to florence . I sold my business, the Oil Exploration business and had some success doing that, over 15. But i was 39 years old and had an cute understand our quick lip 39 can become 9 and i wanted something more meaningful and didnt have any idea but it was very difficult just carving out space to break free of the gravitational pull of the established life. My son was two years old. Wasnt spending time with him like i wanted to. So just seemed like a great opportunity to take a break, learn about things id always been interested in and never had time to do. Well, here we are. Host what was your first career. You second career was oil. Guest i had a determination be a professional tennis player and played some qualifying tournaments and had some success but i dime the conclusion i couldnt be great and that was important to me, and so i had to let go of it. It was very, very difficult thing to do but helped me in ways couldnt foresee at the time when i was thinking about selling my own glass explore asia business. That was rick, too, letting go on an identity but hide didnt before and survived that. It was a great enthusiasm to take time scough learn about thing its didnt know about. Host where did you grow up. Guest i was born in oak park, illinois, but i spend most of my time in dallas. My parents are from oklahoma and moved to dallas in 1960. I was there educated there, and then went to several different colleges and ultimately built my Business Career out of dallas. Host when did you get interested in art and history. Guest always been interested in history but didnt know much about art. My parents werent racial but able to take us on trips and exposees to museums just as tourists and always interested in seeing these things and didnt understand anything about them other than i thought one was pretty or one wasnt. Spent time walking through churches, but as i started traveling more as an adult and then once i became married i had more interest in these things, not understanding what i was looking at. I wasnt interested in trying to amend it through reading books. I learn best outside of classroom. Very tactile. In florence there are lot of american universities. I hired an american professor to take me around the city one day week and show me these things through her eyes. I want to see what want to learn about these things in a very, very handson way. A great, great experience do under hour sculpture moves, why churches that both teen be the same, one is more important than the other and i europe was where i classroom and florence was my school and was an extraordinary opportunity. Host there is a dollar figure you can put on the art that was stolen by the nazi snooze as high as you want to make it. We get into an exercise of futility trying to put numbers on it. Do we approach a trillion . We might. When the become that paintings today, some paintings selling for 150,000,200,000,000. We have to toe ask what would have this leonard dida vincis paint could go have come on the market and sold. You can get to a billion very quickly with a couple of paint examination start to think in some salt mines these monument officers were find ing 20,000 paintings, 10,000 paintings, hundreds of thousands of ancient Library Books and the number are staggering. Host how much is still missing . Guest here again, this becomes aen exercise in numbers. A lot of people like to, i think, deal with numbers that are just so large. Thick it makes it harder for the public to understand. A number i use is hundreds of thousands of cultural objects, including work of art, but the nazis stole everything that had any value so we are talking about tapestries, paintings, drawings, important books, documents. In poland they have 60,000 specific works of art on their missing database. So when we say a few hundred thousand cultural objects, thats not a random number that is just picked out of the sky. Some people use the millions of numbers. Its hard to tell. Host 202 is the area code. Host were going to begin with call from ernie in howard beach, new york. Youre on with robert ed sell. Caller good morning, mr. Ed sell. I read the rain of europa and they can talk about lincoln going over before the war to buy degenerate art. Im wondering whether or not you can speak to what the circumstances were . I believe it was before the war, before 39, and may have been in germany or in sweden. Can you tell me something about it, what happened . What did he buy . Guest one of the great thing i learned the court of my work is to speak passionately about the things now about and be quick to say i dont know, and in this case i cant help. Host did the nazis take great care or karatless. Guest i them you have a whole range of things. In the earlier days when theyre in control of these there was some degree of care for arts that war taken. Things intend are for collection. When the mass removals of works of art from peoples homes in the east were things homes are destroyed, the cities or razeed. I dont think there was care. In the west as jews apartments are looted en masse, theyre piled up. The paradox of war, these survived because as result of haven been stolen and hidden out of the way of allies bomb examination survived where they might not have otherwise. So a lot of dislocations and paradoxes in the telling of the story. Thats one of them. Host andy, keptington, maryland. Caller so, thank you for all the great work that you have done. My question has to do with the National Gallery of art, and i believe they currently have an exhibit that is timed to coincide with the movie, but for about 15 years or so ive been really troubled with the National Gallery of art because it turns out that back in the 1980s, they put on an exhibition of artworks on loan that included some artworks that had been looted by the nazis, and this was a collection of art, impressionist paintings by the swiss industrialist emile buehler. And when thats came out the National Gallery never addressed it. Never apologized and its just sore of like buried its head in the sand like an ostrich. Now theyre claiming to be so concerned about this issue, but my question to you is, number one, are you familiar with that issue, and number two, do you have any suggestions in terms of pressure that might be applied to have them address this issue. All they have to do is apologize all right, andy wishing got the point. Guest i think that i dont know about the pick the buehler collection, i have a little knowledge about. This is a long time ago now and the issue of providence, which is a fancy way of saying who owned it previously, is something that really has come into the fore now since the late 1990s and i zients see any point in going back to scold the national gary ordinary galleries from 1987. Dont think that would happen today, and i think that we should focus on going forward, trying to solve the problems we can fix and that is what the work of the Monuments Foundation is. Host steven hall, professor tweets in, wonderful presentation. My history students at he can corn states air signed to watch the movie. Guest i think the movie is fantastic in this respect. Its hugely challenging subject, hasnt been tackled on the big screen before which seems incredible to believe. A major story about world war ii have what seen on the big screen. Its a daunting task. Covers a wide geographical scope. A large amount of time. These monument officers were never in one place together so there have to be adjustments to the story but George Clooney has done a good job capture thing overall arching principle offered the movie and people will know this is an american and british operation. There was historic orders issued by general eisenhower that waived the way for this to happen. Millions of cultural objects found, the policy of the western allies to return them. The monuments officers risked their lives or killed in combat. An incredibly noble and upbeat story about world war ii. If they want to know the details and know more about the people, its all that any book. Host or your web site, the Monuments Men guest the Monuments Men foundation. Org has a tremendous amount of information biology fries on each one of the 350 so Monuments Men and women from 13 nations, a lot of photographs we have some that are in rescue, my first book, but also some of the other books, and a lot of information we couldnt include in the various books ive written. Host two events, both at the white house. This past week at the white house for a screening. Guest yeah. We were invited George Clooney and grant hestlov invited and our youngest living monuments officer and we were invited to a private screening at the white house on tuesday. President obama made a point of having time for a visit with us and it was a great opportunity for harry. One of the few people oh have been to the white house twice under two sitting president s women were there in 2007. Host next call for robert edsel from mar that in south carolina. Probably martha barkly. Caller good morning, peter. Host how are you, martha. Caller im fine. Because of cspan i ran out and bought edsells book years ago and you have stolen my thunder, peter. You asked about the priceless, the cost and the value of art. Its definitely priceless just as life is priceless, and the movie, of course, portrayed the two lives lost. I imagine there were more lives lost. Have to check my books. My question to robert edsel, thank you for work since the age of 39. Its marvelous. Have a feeling the movie was like a Fraternity Party atmosphere, even though the locations and artwork was superb. I wanted to know the rest of the story at rouges if you could tell that. Guest the rest of the story what . Caller at nye . About madonna . Host yes. Guest its the only sculpture by michelangelo to leave lit during his lifetime and one of the focused pieces that the nazis stole in september 1944. This is such an illustrated situation because human nature you figure with the allies, a few weeks down the road the nazis turn and run for the hills but some stills that have not been acquired yet and theres a group of nazi that go to the church and wrap up the madonna in a mattress, a burlap mattress that was the same mattress that monuments man george stout found in the salt mine in austria the following year. Taken out and put on a ship, sent round the north sea and taken to the salt mine where its found. One of the key pieces that the british monuments officer was trying to find when he was nil march 1945. One of two monuments officers killed. Host melinda, texas. Youre on with author robert edsell. Caller i cant wait to see your movie but i was going to ask you, i saw a movie years ago with Burt Lancaster called the train, all about them trying to get the stolen art. I wonder if thats the same thing youre talking about. Guest a much staller story. Its a fine, fine film. A based on a great hero she was remarkable woman and have translated a wonderful book written about her that is out there. Just a focus on her story. Ive written a short introduction to it which is available on ebook. Rose is this woman who works in the museum about halfway between the louvre and the la concorde, and works under the eyes of the nazis. They know she is there like a custodian but the is digging through tracks which she terms of the the american monuments officer which is a treasure map to find these things. The story on the train introduces the figure of rose and then becomes a tet atet between the French Resistance and this fictitious german character trying to got the last work of art back to german. The last train goes in a circling around the center of the city but its a fun movie and. Host prior to the german invasion did the europeans try to protect their art. Guest i spend a lot of time talk held in heroic role of the art superintendents but volunteers in all these cities in saving italy the book really begins with one scene we loaned to the film about the near destruction of the last supper by allied bomb examination had it not been for protective measures by local officials on the whatif chance a ball might fall near the dining hal containing this, we wouldnt have in davinci code and would know about the last supper from art history. The bomb falls, the paintings is exposed to the almosts for two years, only saved because there was scaffolding and polls bracing the walls. A nec miraculous near disaster that this masterpiece of western civilization was almost lovers by bombing our or side. Host what about the louvre . What is did it stay intact. Guest the louvre building did but the french artificials the french art officials, know the invasion of poland begins they start evacuation of 4 then thousand works of art from the louvre and other museums in press, taking to french chateaus in the country side. The standard procedure, happened in florence. Removal of works to some 38 tuscan veil las. The great concern was bombing bill the allies destroying the museums or other Cultural Treasures inside the cities. The problem is sting er when the allied bombings begins because in florence the Museum Officials didnt have the vehicles, and couldnt get them from the veil las back into the city and there they are save from the allied bombing but in the middle of the path of ground warfare. Wait perilous situation. Some damaged works of art and ultimately the removal of these by i sr. S forces. Host susan from springfield, missouri. Youre on booktv. Caller thank you for being limit grew up in dallas, although i am in springfield. My question is about christian art. Forgive, i havent had chance read you book. Wonder especially in iraq and places where there might be more religious type artifacts and so forth, if they were destroyed on purpose because of obvious reasons that people dont want the world to know that anything else exists besides what they believe in. I just con at thed if your research has wondered if you ruhr research has turned anything. Guest one thing the Monuments Foundation men is doing is we are trying to raise worldwide visibility and the George Clooney film is so important because no book can accomplish what this film can do. Its going to be opening in some 100 countries around the world. So thats a great chance for people not only to know the story of the Monuments Men and know the heroic role that the United Statesled effort played in saving these things. This isnt a religious art vs. Christian art versus jewish art, islamic art. Its not segregated. The nazis stole anything of value whether it was islamic in nature, collected by sometimes jewish collectors who collected things that were viable be acquired. Monuments officers rescued whatever was stolen. In iraq the great tragedy for our country was in the in the aftermath of looting the National Museum and other Cultural Treasures there, we did not make protection of the Cultural Treasures in iraq in 2003 following the invasion a priority tarring and it was horrible period in our history. We paid horrible price in the court of World Opinion and one over the works of the mon. S foundation to reestablish that High Standard and we neat upped malt hill the president of the United States, our ceo of the enterprise to come forward and restate what general eisenhower did. Protection and respect for the works of art of other people is important and thats a policy of the United States. Host brian perry tweets in the monuments movie was fun but there is an in depth documentary in the works based on the book orre made. Were having discusses about that. We worked with National Geographic and fox to make a one, hour documentary which showed in the states in conjunction with the release of the film. Its big story. Up until this point in time, it hasnt been told for a variety of reasons. Its taken years of my effort to get three books written and more books 0 forthcoming in the future. So i hope that well have chance to do that. Hope about we see is a feature film on saving italy and its a markable story and a very different kind of problem because italy is a partner of nazi germany the first three years of the war, and it presents all sorts of different problems and a completely different cast of monuments officers. Host we just showed the cover of your books if want to ask about saving italy, the photographer on the cover. Guest a remarkable photograph we found into our research of the david, probably certainly one of the three most wellknown works of art. You think about the story between the mona lisa and the lourve, which hays moved on five separate occasions, which is a story we tell in mon. S men. The last super and the david, both chief nell saving italy. The three most famous works of art are at ground zero of the story. The david is couldnt be moved out of the academia because of the size and weigh sock the local artificials entombed it in brick and the great concern being that an allied bomb might land on the ceiling that would collapse and fall on the david. That didnt sheep the mon. S officer is arriving into the academic ya, standing there watching as the local officials are removing the brick to expose the dade for the first anytime almost three years. Host and on the cover of rescuing davinci. Guest we see another masterpiece by leo leonardo davinci. This photo in 1946, the mon. S officers are standing in front of a train outdoors, holding this painting with their bare handed. They removed it from the crate. Its one painting on one train car of 26 train cars filled with stolen works of art from poland and theyre returning it, and at the charter rescue museum. Host matthew in tacoma, washington. Youre on with robert edsel. Caller i was wondering if growth minute out about the porcelain factories in france especially and then also the micen factories in germany. I was wondering who your favorite ten miss player and is who you tennis player and is who you prefer nadal. Host didnt catch the last part. I think on the porcelain, this is one of the challenge with the things missing today. We have to deal in the context of what is portable and what is not and the degree of fragility. Works or that that were porcelain, so mean destroyed. Coins melted. A painting rolled up, weighed 200 pounds, one person is not lugging that around. So most things are things which a soldier could take home as a surer in, ship home. Those are things we religion see more and more of. Favorite player, rod laver. A dear friend, remarkable guy. Host he was a lefty. Guest he was. He was a role model for me for many years about the importance of hard, and discipline. Glen, new jersey. Please go ahead with your question or comment. Caller thank you. Thank you for having me on and thank you, mr. Edsel for your work. In the last segment there was discussion of creating a commission perhaps to oversee the issues of the politics and all the other sundry problems that occur when trying to determine the ownership of the different works. What are your thoughts on the creation of such a commission and who should be on it and how should it function, what authority should be given. That kind of thing. Ill hang up for your sunshines that presumes agree we should have one before getting into the details houston it should be set up. This idea of having a magazinesser master nation overthe restitution issues has been kicked around. Its complicated issue. Dont know thats the best solution. What i believe is the approach we should be taking is to raise awareness about this because i think this story has been stuck with art historians and some scholars and hasnt been available to the broad public in a way that has been accessible to everybody. I didnt have any background or training on it but spent a lot of years studyingy interviewing 17 mon. S officers and traveling around and interviewing a hundred of their kids, finding letters they had written home if think the public, the court of Public Opinion thats the most powerful court in the world and will carry the day in reestablishing the standards. People in government and in state department, defense department, Pay Attention to what voters know. Voter seed movies and read books and legislators read books, too and as we understand more about the stir believe the answer in many ways is simple. No passage of time that should change the character of a theft. Thats the law in the United States. If we can determine theres work of art that belongs to somebody it was stolen, dont think it should matter that its 60 years its taken to us to fine that out. The work of art should be returned and thats the law in the United States. There have been efforts to make modification but we need to get back to that. Host from our Facebook Page is this a question from irish. I apologize if i mispronounced that name. While we all agree that storage art should be return, how far back in history should we go . For instance, should the elgin stones be returned to greece . The Rosetta Stone to egypt how do you respond to the argument that take the Rosetta Stone protected imfrom local have toes or just neglect. Guest i think thats a great question. My view is that its a slippery slope when we start going back before world war ii and start reevaluating how things have shown up in different museums. I think we can be proud about the fact, for instance, at the National Gallery of part in washington, the works of art here have either been donated or acquired through funds donated to the National Gallery and there is no war art there, art come in as a result of the United States fighting a war but the United States its a much younger country. In england and france, works of art in the louvre and the vna in london, many of these were acquired through conquest during more colonial times. 1945, in my way of thinking, is a sea change going forward. There is a law, unesco law in 1970 that prohibits removal of cultural objects from countries without permits. I think 1945 when that begins because the western allies have five million cultural objects they found in salt mines and caves and castles. A million of which belong to north american january museums or german collectors and theyre german museums are damaged or destroyed so the United States and Great Britain forces are custodians of the works art until they can be rebuilt. The four million objects that are stolen are returned to various countries. Thats a sea change from how to wars were fought. Its the beginning of the end of colonialism. The suez canal changes hand, and black countries start to game independence. From 1945 on we know its not okay to go into countries and remove works works of art. Thats what a portion of the war was fought about. To go become and rewind the tapes, i think is a complicated problem. I nose these are deeply emotional topics. Lived in europe for five years and know how people around the world how emotive they get when discussing these, perhaps there can be lon arrangements work out but i think try to consider a legislation to address this thing is a mistake. Host wilhelm asks when the nazis stole the artworks, who became the new owner, the government, individual naz showers commune . Are there transfer titles . Guest no, there arent really transfer titles. The mas sides went to extraordinary lengths to make thunder looting legal. They were very conscientious about that. Adolph hitler having agents making acquisition off works of art, often times distressed sales and things that are just out and out stolen, but there was an effort to try to pass laws that stripped jews, an ale example, of ownership rights to try to make these things look legal. It was preposterous argument made by Alfred Rosenberg that we didnt really steel anything from anybody in press. We went into jews papers, 77,000 apartments and nobody was there so we took the works of art to save them. 0 course nobody was there they loaded them up on trains trainsd sent them could concentration camps. Its hard to imagine events that people say these things in a courtroom with a straight face but they did. I think that youre not going to find record title or something to document the acquisition of works of part in some cases that makes it more difficult there nazi inventory card codes that evidence the acquiring of these works art, the theft. Not a legal ownership title but they document how these works of art, required photographed, inventoryied. Code applied to the families and those documents were found by the Monuments Men and were used at the nuremberg trials and very important in helping of the sift and return the objects. Our thunder from new jersey, good morning. Caller good morning mitch uncle want administrative officerer with the the United Nations and i was wondering, there is a connection between the unrra and the work of the Monuments Men. Thank you very much. Guest a good question. Dont know the answer. You can send us an email to mon. S Men Foundation. Org. I dont know. Host terry in marry yet tacoma ohio, go ahead with your question or comment. Caller yes. Thank you for taking my call. I wonder i he had any opinion on the artworks and obvious destruction that the hack church has perpetrate over the centuries to artworks and if they should be held accountable. Thank you. Guest i think we have more immediate problems on our hands in places like syria, where were seeing works of art and cultural areas. They belong to all of us and should be a concern for all of us being seeing them destroyed by both sides in a horrible civil war. Thingsunder threat in cairo and mali, and so these challenges are a challenge that arent going to go away as long as we have cop flicks. Think to try to go back is a mentioned easterly and address things that happened over the centuries is not a task that the mon. Men foundation is engaged in. Were trying to focus on how to applying the standards we had during world war ii. Host we identifying you as the coauthor of Monuments Men with brett witter. Guest a number of books since then. Brett worked with me and our team. The Research Gathering was so daunting and the race against time to write this story, trying to make sure we could get out while there were many mon. S officer toes to recognize there were 17 monuments officers ininterviewed there are now five livering and attends the enemy services of several of them. Were trying to make sure their stories available and known and brett was an important part of helping get the book written. Host did these men recognize what they were doing at the time . Guest they didnt understand the magnitude of what they were doing. I think they were also segregated knowledge working in their own little areas and very little interaction with other monuments officers and werent necessarily even seeing their peers report. All being channeled through eisenhowers headquarters. I think they felt very proud about the individual roles they had but i think its taken the passage of time for them to understand how extensive and pervasive this theft was, this industrial scale looting operation of theness florida sis and works works of nazs and s of heard have had such a dramatic increase in monetary value. Not necessary lay positive development but a quite real one. Art is look at with money often time. People talk about art as part of their portfolio, more modern development. But the monuments officers played an essential role in the survival of these things, and i dont think until more recent times theyve look at it that way. I think very simply they say, like world war ii veterans, doing our job, this is our responsibility. We did our job as best we could. Host an email i worked for several years in art and history museums in the Pacific Northwest and one stir heard from several people was about a monuments man who withheld a trove of prisons which he later parlayed into a position for himself as curator at a regionally prominent museum donating his print collections. Do you know of any instance instances. Guest i dont and id be interesting in node. Mon. S Men Foundation. Org. Please send us the hard details you have and well take a look at it. Host next call from ann in frankfurt, kentucky. Hi, ann. Caller hi. Invideo seeing the movie last week and looking forward to reading your book. A few years ago i heard about a soldier who returned a valuable piece of art to the United States while he was there i think maybe he sent it in several shipments, and think was kempt in a vault and after his death his flame returned it. His family returned it. Do do we know other cases of military men who spirit away some art artifacts and are there suspension otherses may have done so. Guest no question that soldiers from all side, including the United States, picked up cultural objects as souvenirs and sometimes they took hem to deliberately. Werent supposed to. There were rules against that. Its one of the reasons that the foundations created this toll free new york 186 ofworld war ii art or wwii art. The foundation serve as a Clearing House for families or mid age that it may have had world war ii van average chance to call if they find something in their attic or basement. We of hearing the passage of all this world war ii generation and all these objects now have new owners, the kid inherit them and want to sell them. A lot of things besides painting that are important the mon. S Men Foundation has recovered a up in of these documents and have been donated both to National Archives archives archives and a german archive. Albums filled with photographs of work offered art stolen by Adolph Hitler. Items that hitler had in his position and look through like a mail order cat log catalogue to determine if hi wanted them. Im not ascender about how stuff got here. I dont care whether a soldier took something or brought it hem as a sufficient knee. We should or them for their service and get these back to their rightful ownersment in 1980s an american soldier, not a monthlies man but a soldier, deliberately took important relics out of a church in germany, brought them home and after he passed his estate had them. They attempted to sell them. Ultimately the works were returned to germany. That was a precedentsetting case. We know now today that these works canned be sold. There are serious laws in the country. The national stolen properties act. The mon. S foundation doesnt charge anybody. Were there to help illuminate the path home and work with people to just do the right thing. Host court any asked did the nazis loot from the vatican . Guest the story about the close call of the vatican is significant part of my most recent book, saving italy. There were orders issued by hitler in very outraged Adolph Hitler upon mussolinis disappearance in august 1943. Hitler was convinced the vatican played a roll in removing mussolini from office hem hated the vatican and the pope and issued orders to a fascinating character we have not studied much other literature, which i talk a lot about it in saving italy, ss general karl wolf. Wolf is sent to italy, the coleader of German Forces there along with albert hisle and its wolfs role, his order is to go into the vatican, empty it of the works of arts and documents and enormous history there there is and kidnap and one german general testified at nuremberg, kill pope pious xii him realize it its a bad used and spent time over the next four or five months trying to negotiate with the fuhrer on different approach to dealing with this. This was something that its debate among historians today whether hurt loire hitler was serious. Its something we have been working at. The individuals received in a few instances declarations from the countries right after the war. One things we did in the foundation was to get congressional resolutions in both houses passed unanimously. That was a fairly easy process but right now we are working on the pedal and have the goal in congress to obtain signatures. Its a difficult thing to obtain and takes the signatures of both houses we have the support of senator bond and menendez and congresswoman granger is taking the lead inhouse weve got about 100 signatures in the house and develop a dozen and a half in the senate but i want to see these men and women on earth while they are still alive. Its really important to us to say thank you and we can be there to receive this great honor. But if they did get the metal from president bush guest we were surprised and incredibly honored and particularly pleased but just to underscore the point i am making they are not with us today. Host what do you think the holdup is in congress . Guest i dont think that its running behind per se but i think all of these get done because there is some obsessive person sitting there saying listen to me. Its an important directive that has never been done before that stated the importance of the treasure is not just once in december 43 but again in may 44 prior to the invasion of italy and western europe. And i think that speaks volumes about why they should be recognized in our country and the most appropriate way with the gold medal. Host about 15 minutes left and i agree nice calling. Guest i think it is admirable what you are doing. Its going back to history and one question that popped in my mind was there were a lot a lot of things were confiscated in families and im just curious what you have to say about that. Therethere is heart aches io or moving in the asia theater and Pacific Theater and of course in europe, western europe and Eastern Europe and i wish we could find a way to help every Single Person find all the things taken. Getting into military objects like that. Its not something the Foundation Work is what we are focused on cultural objects, which isnt to say the sort of like the one you mentioned isnt an importance belonging to somebody. When we get into some of the smaller objects, its very difficult to locate those things because in many cases. They are showing up in auctions within inventory code so its not that people were only looking for paintings or sculpture but they have identification marks to be able to locate and determine. Host Deborah Harris asks on facebook as any effort been made to identify russian objects by germans on easter the eastert and the subsequent story told . Is complicated. We in the United States lost about 400,000 men and women during world war ii. The soviet union lost 25 million, 17. 5 million. The policy to the extent that it was even a formalized with the removal not just of works of art that everything by germany to the troops going back to the country because we think of how much destruction have taken place and they needed something. There were these taken away with specific instructions not only to take the works of art but also disassemble factories and things like that. They returned several million objects to germany in the 1950s as a sign of good faith and getting some of these things back in the museums and in berlin but there are still things that are avenues again in perrysburg and moscow that are prominently displayed. Its not a museum decision commits the government decision and i think there are hundreds of thousands of objects that belong to germany and portland that are in the former soviet Union Countries and i think theres things they are like in oualike inour country that no oe necessarily knows where they a are. I want to tell you how much im enjoying this program and i also wanted to point out maybe to the commentator. At the commentator might be interested in a book written by peter whose a Marine Reserve captain and has been a District Attorney in new york city. They sent him to baghdad iraq in 2004 to investigate the looting of library, and what they found out was this is also a Nonfiction Book incidentally. Host when did this come out of . Guest i believe 2004. It is a nonfiction. Guest its matthew. Caller i beg your pardon. Anyway, from baghdad, nonfiction and it is a book about how he found out all of the terrible publicity. He would be an excellent interview on the tv. Guest there is a lot of mischaracterization. Matthew is a great patriot. He went in in 2003 and 2004. It wasnt his fault to try to fix the problems and identify how many works of art have been limited and finally get them back. There were others that participated in the important monuments in 2004. There were initial reports of 250 some odd thousand taken and it was more about 15,000. Thit underscored the importanceo me about why this needs to be told and why ive been so excited to share it with everybody because it is near and dear to all of our hearts. And his books are interesting books but theres a lot more to the story. And the thing is the damage was done not just to the works of art, but the appearance of the United States. With people around the world it seemed we didnt care about these Cultural Treasures, so im accused of not caring because they were not judeochristian, which was nonsense. It just wasnt the priority targeted because like i said we inherited it from world war ii and we need to know about it. Guest we are coming up on the 100th anniversary of world war i. Are there any looting in world war i like there was . Guest there will certainly damaged Cultural Treasures and the monuments of fine arts section wasnt the first time this had ever been done. Actually, another of the paradoxes, the efforts to protect the works of art was a german effort in world war i, but it happened not in participation but the destruction of the library and german scholars were called in to try to advise the German Military to such instances but it was a different scale than we saw in world war ii and the leadership of the United States and grand pretense transform how the work could be fraught. Host from our Facebook Page, thank you for making the story available to the world. After seeing the movie we now want to go to europe to see the art and monuments. The way that you weave this into the historical site makes the book a must read for all. How much of this art has been returned to the family . Guest i think much of it has. When the monuments officers worshiping these back to france to make sure they were covered but there were many things to. They were fortunate i and the other families. I think that others love the story and admire the monuments to the men and women. They can help us honor them and visit the foundation and fill in the form they can put their zipp code anzipcode in and it will gn automatic message to the members of congress and the senate asking them to support the congressional gold medal bill. Host the previous caller, booktv covered the book in 2006 when it came out. If you go to the website, type in his last name in the corner in the lefthand corner where it says search, you will find the program and you will be able to watch it online whe whenever you want. Maggie in new york city, you are on. Caller i am curious about a recent news article about the Department House of about 1400 pieces of art that had been stolen. And his father was an art dealer well known to be working with the nazis and now ive seen a second article i think it was in a Country House more pieces have been discovered and this will send me news until it was leaked to a magazine after the fact of the discovery so im just curious about your take on what is unfolding in the story. Guest its a number of different kinds of problems. You have this 80yearold man who may have some mental issues. I dont know, theres been some speculation on the part of some people. He was 12yearsold at the end of the war and i think its important that we point out. He was one of the art dealers selected, one of the 14 to move works of art that had been removed by german museums, it was considered and they exchanged them into some of thee works of art and the collection came out of the german museums and that is a complicated case the likes of which we havent seen on this scale before. Others have been purchased in our markets and may be for sale. Thereve been a few that have been identified as highly suspect. The germans mistake was to allow it to be treated as a tax matter for the first two years and only to disclose when reporters got wind of it and they were going to write the story. But by then of course the Public Opinion back to that had cast them in a very bad light for not grabbing hold of this and seeing what an explosive topic it was. More time is going to have to pass. The numbers that have speculated our ridiculously too high and no one has seen the work of art or how anyone can come up with a value that is pretty good i guess at that stage, but its worth a lot of money and its a case that needs to be resolved and its bringing that his ability to the statute of limitations problem im limiting the period of 30 years that is going to have to be revisited and is in the process of being discussed so it is an interesting story and underscores our point but theres still a lot of work to. I think the work is very much appreciated. But you mentioned the questions of ownership were a slippery slope and i was curious to hear your opinion about the repatriation which were often required by museums and universities through nefarious means. Guest we may be in some of the later innings to the art question but here in the early discussion phases of the question of Cultural Property. And they take the matters of Cultural Property and they are a hugely emotional subject. I think we are going to see as they come to the table and become part of the Economic Community there will be discussions about why many of the works of art are not in the country and wh by some of the me developed countries are going to take place and are going to be emotional discussions in so many instances. And i think it is healthy that the discussions take place. I think what the monuments story does is highlight a point in time on how the war has been fraught in the past. Host if you remember the email from a little bit early here asking about the monuments that they have confiscated art, he has emailed again. I just looked at the question and it doesnt appear on the roster. The stories come from reliable sources including connections to the particular museum and it appears he wasnt a Monuments Men but a soldier somewhere down the line who had access to a substantial number of artwork. You have a map in your book. Any thoughts about conducting a tour . Guest we call it in the footsteps of the monument and its something that we are going to be doing both to italy in 2015, and also europe so people can follow the stories as they took place in italy and also in the monuments. Host here once again are the books rescuing da vinci which is a beautiful picture book in case you are interested in seeing the works of art. Saving italy came out this last year and the Monuments Men. Thanks for being on booktv this is the era before cable television. It was before cnn and a Little Pockets of cable here and there. Theres the big media and csp cspan. He quickly realizes the potency of the fiveminute speech because it has been being carried over cable into 100,000 homes around the country and they would sa say will you givea speech to 100,000 people thats what youre doing with cspan with special orders so it quickly gets several hundred letters a week from people around the country. The Junior Member from georgia. Via september 11 attack on the u. S. State Department Special mission in benghazi. They were members of the Security Team assigned to defend the compound. The book titled 13 hours was made into a movie in 2016. They joined us on the cspan bus at the 2014 miami book festival. Host joining us are two members of the benghazi response team. They are part of this work 13 hours the inside account of what happened in benghazi. We will begin here where were you september 12 . Guest benghazi that night i was meeting a case officer having dinner with people we needed to talk to and we wrapped it up when i got a call that saide we need to get back as quick as possible, theres something going on and theres trouble at the consulate. Host were you a member of the military or wh order why weu there . Guest