Booklist: The Venus Fixers, by Ilaria Dagnini Brey

The Venus Fixers: The Remarkable Story of the Allied Soldiers Who SAved Italy's Art During WWII, by Ilaria Dagnini Brey
Farrar, Srtrau and Giroux, 2009
262 pages plus notes, bibliography, index and 16 pages of b&w photos

Description
In 1943, while the world was convulsed with war, a few wisionaries--in the private sector and in the military--commited to protect Europe's cultural heritage from the indiscriminate ravages of battle.

And so the Allies appointed Monuments Officers, a motley group of art historians, curators, architects and artists, to ensure that the masterpieces of European art and architecture were not looted or bombed into oblivion. Often working as shellfire exploded around them, the Monuments Officers of Italy shored up tottering palaces and cathedrals, safeguarded Michaelangelos and Giottos, and even blocked a Nazi convoy of stolen paintings bound for Goring's birthday celebrations. Sometimes they failed. But to an astonishing degree they succeeded, and their story in an unparalleled adventure with the gorgeous tints of a Botticelli as its backdrop.

Table of Contents
Maps
Prologue
1. Italian Art goes to war
2. "Men must manouevre"
3. Sicilian Prelude
4. The Birth of the Venus Fixers
5. The Confict of the present and the past
6. Treasure Hunt
7. Florence divided
8. A time to rend, a time to sew
9. The Duelists
10. Alpine Loot
Epilogue: A Necessary Dream

Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index