This is an auction for MONUMENTS MEN by Robert M. Edsel.

Subtitled "ALLIED HEROES, NAZI THIEVES AND THE GREATEST TREASURE HUNT IN HISTORY".

"World War Two was the most destructive war in history and caused the greatest dislocation of cultural artifacts. Hundreds of thousands of items remain missing. The main burden fell to a few hundred men and women, curators and archivists, artists and art historians from 13 nations. Their task was to save and preserve what they could of Europe's great art, and they were called the Monuments Men. Focusing on the organization's role in northwest Europe, he describes the Monuments Men from their initial mission to limit combat damage to structures and artifacts to their changed focus of locating missing items. In southern Germany alone, over a thousand caches emerged, containing everything from church bells to insect collections."

• Publishers Weekly (US)

Amazon.com review:

“At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Monuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture. Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis."

More very favourable reviews on Amazon.com.

Large format (trade) paperback 2009.

473 pages + photographs.

Good condition.

The cost of shipping is $8.95.

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.