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In 1943, with the world convulsed by war and a Fascist defeat in Europe far from certain, a few visionariesâcivilians and soldiers alikeâsaw past questions of life and death to realize that victory wasnât the only thing at stake. So was the priceless cultural heritage of thousands of years.
In the midst of the conflict, the Allied Forces appointed the monuments officersâa motley group of art historians, curators, architects, and artistsâto ensure that the great masterworks of European art and architecture were not looted or bombed into oblivion. The journalist Ilaria Dagnini Brey focuses her spellbinding account on the monuments officers of Italy, quickly dubbed âthe Venus Fixersâ by bemused troops.
Working on the front lines in conditions of great deprivation and danger, these unlikely soldiers stripped the great galleries of their incomparable holdings and sent them into safety by any means they could; when trucks could not be requisitioned or âborrowed,â a Tiepolo altarpiece might make its midnight journey across the countryside balanced in the front basket of a bicycle. They blocked a Nazi convoy of two hundred stolen paintingsâincluding Danae, Titianâs voluptuous masterpiece, an intended birthday present for Hermann Göring.They worked with skeptical army strategists to make sure air raids didnât take out the heart of an ancient city, and patched up Renaissance palazzi and ancient churches whose lead roofs were sometimes melted away by the savagery of the attacks, exposing their frescoed interiors to the harsh Tuscan winters and blistering summers. Sometimes they failed. But to an astonishing degree, they succeeded, and anyone who marvels at Italyâs artistic riches today is witnessing their handiwork.
In the course of her research, Brey gained unprecedented access to private archives and primary sources, and the result is a book at once thorough and grandly entertainingâa revelatory take on a little-known chapter of World War II history. The Venus Fixers is an adventure story with the gorgeous tints of a Botticelli landscape as its backdrop.
About: In 1943, with the world convulsed by war and a Fascist defeat in Europe far from certain, a few visionariesâcivilians and soldiers alikeâsaw past questions of life and death to realize that victory wasnât the only thing at stake.
About: In 1943, while the world was convulsed by war, a few visionaries -- in the private sector and in the military -- committed to protect Europe's cultural heritage from the indiscriminate ravages of World War II.
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