Read Online Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation's Treasures from the Nazis by Robert M. Edsel - Free Book Online
Authors: Robert M. Edsel
Ads: Link
cultural and political leaders: Francis Henry Taylor, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Paul Sachs, Associate Director of the Fogg Museum of Harvard; Archibald MacLeish, Librarian of Congress; Secretary of State Cordell Hull; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Harlan F. Stone. The press release itself—State Department Release no. 348—proclaimed: “The Commission may be called upon to furnish museum officials and art historians to the General Staff of the Army, so that, so far as is consistent with military necessity, works of cultural value may be protected in countries occupied by the armies of the United Nations.”
By the time the article was published, Allied forces had already bombed Rome twice and Milan six times. While American bombers had demonstrated their ability to avoid hitting Vatican property and the most recognizable monuments during both bombings of Rome, they had accidentally damaged an important church and killed thousands of innocent civilians. Herbert Matthews, veteran correspondent for The New York Times and no stranger to the destruction of war, attended the briefing before the July 19 mission. “No one there could point out anything for anyone,” he later commented. “There was no mention whatsoever of San Lorenzo.” Matthews believed that “San Lorenzo could have been saved along with the other buildings indicated had anyone on the staff been aware of its importance.” His observation would prove prophetic.
The Allies were just weeks away from landing an invasion force of 189,000 troops on the Italian peninsula. Even with formal protection procedures, damage would be inevitable. Once troops arrived, who would be responsible for the protection of the richest concentration of cultural treasures in the world? The Roberts Commission seemed an unlikely savior. At that moment, it had yet to place even a single “specialist in planning for [the] protection of historic monuments” among the invasion force.
----
* Mussolini was a pilot; both his sons, also pilots, served in the Regia Aeronautica.
* The word Europe in the commission’s name later was changed to War Area s.
4
THE EXPERIMENT BEGINS
JULY–SEPTEMBER 1943
A lthough the announcement of the Roberts Commission took place just days after the near-destruction of The Last Supper , President Roosevelt had, in fact, signed the order establishing the group two months earlier, in June 1943. Aware that the commission would not be operational before the invasion of Sicily, Roosevelt suggested that the army assign an “Adviser on Fine Arts and Monuments” as a stopgap measure. The first candidate, Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Francis Henry Taylor, failed the physical for being overweight. John Walker, Chief Curator of the National Gallery of Art and former Professor of Fine Arts at the American Academy in Rome, suggested a friend and colleague already in the military: Captain Mason Hammond.
A Bostonian by birth, Mason Hammond had a youthful appearance and preppy face that belied his forty years. He had had a brilliant academic career, studying at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar before joining the faculty of his alma mater, Harvard, in 1928. He taught Classical Studies at the American Academy in Rome from 1937 to 1939, during the height of Mussolini’s dictatorship. After his stint in Rome, he returned to Harvard and resumed his position as Professor of Classics. In 1942, Hammond joined the Army Air Force, working in the Intelligence Branch at the Pentagon before becoming Adviser on Fine Arts and Monuments. “My qualifications were not in art or art history, but at least I knew some Italian and was somewhat familiar with ancient art and architecture.” But this assignment came at a considerable sacrifice; he had to leave behind his wife and two daughters to serve overseas.
Hammond knew some of the men who had developed the idea of creating cultural-preservation officers during war, including George Stout, a colleague at
By the time the article was published, Allied forces had already bombed Rome twice and Milan six times. While American bombers had demonstrated their ability to avoid hitting Vatican property and the most recognizable monuments during both bombings of Rome, they had accidentally damaged an important church and killed thousands of innocent civilians. Herbert Matthews, veteran correspondent for The New York Times and no stranger to the destruction of war, attended the briefing before the July 19 mission. “No one there could point out anything for anyone,” he later commented. “There was no mention whatsoever of San Lorenzo.” Matthews believed that “San Lorenzo could have been saved along with the other buildings indicated had anyone on the staff been aware of its importance.” His observation would prove prophetic.
The Allies were just weeks away from landing an invasion force of 189,000 troops on the Italian peninsula. Even with formal protection procedures, damage would be inevitable. Once troops arrived, who would be responsible for the protection of the richest concentration of cultural treasures in the world? The Roberts Commission seemed an unlikely savior. At that moment, it had yet to place even a single “specialist in planning for [the] protection of historic monuments” among the invasion force.
----
* Mussolini was a pilot; both his sons, also pilots, served in the Regia Aeronautica.
* The word Europe in the commission’s name later was changed to War Area s.
4
THE EXPERIMENT BEGINS
JULY–SEPTEMBER 1943
A lthough the announcement of the Roberts Commission took place just days after the near-destruction of The Last Supper , President Roosevelt had, in fact, signed the order establishing the group two months earlier, in June 1943. Aware that the commission would not be operational before the invasion of Sicily, Roosevelt suggested that the army assign an “Adviser on Fine Arts and Monuments” as a stopgap measure. The first candidate, Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Francis Henry Taylor, failed the physical for being overweight. John Walker, Chief Curator of the National Gallery of Art and former Professor of Fine Arts at the American Academy in Rome, suggested a friend and colleague already in the military: Captain Mason Hammond.
A Bostonian by birth, Mason Hammond had a youthful appearance and preppy face that belied his forty years. He had had a brilliant academic career, studying at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar before joining the faculty of his alma mater, Harvard, in 1928. He taught Classical Studies at the American Academy in Rome from 1937 to 1939, during the height of Mussolini’s dictatorship. After his stint in Rome, he returned to Harvard and resumed his position as Professor of Classics. In 1942, Hammond joined the Army Air Force, working in the Intelligence Branch at the Pentagon before becoming Adviser on Fine Arts and Monuments. “My qualifications were not in art or art history, but at least I knew some Italian and was somewhat familiar with ancient art and architecture.” But this assignment came at a considerable sacrifice; he had to leave behind his wife and two daughters to serve overseas.
Hammond knew some of the men who had developed the idea of creating cultural-preservation officers during war, including George Stout, a colleague at
Similar Books
