About the Author

James J. Rorimer was curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until 1955 when he was made director of the museum, a position he held until his death in 1966.

Reviews

"...It is a vivid boots-on-the-ground memoir that puts you at the center of the action...At the same time the book has the broad historical context of the best scholarly studies. "Monuments Man" is an utterly extraordinary-and extraordinarily important-book." -WALL STREET JOURNAL


"Monuments Man provides a moving and thought-provoking account of Rorimer's work and the atrocious circumstances in which he and his colleagues were operating. But reading his account anew, it really brought home to me the degree to which it is thanks to the rapid actions and dedication of Rorimer and his colleagues that so many treasures were saved from flooding salt mines, abandoned railroad trucks, fires, appalling humidity and inappropriate storage conditions, and rampant looting by all sides. And, equally, thanks to their scholarship and dedication that these objects were then catalogued and processed and returned to the collections and homes from which they had been taken by the Nazis. Rorimer's book provides a moving testimony that if wars and mass murder can be unleashed by a single evil person, aided and abetted by a corrupted political system, the antidote to that tyranny is provided by brave individuals who devote their lives to doing the right thing. Rorimer was one of those men." -Thomas Campbell, former Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and current Director and CEO of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco