Firstly, I am a huge history buff
and a history major so a fair amount of the books I review on this blog will be about fantastic tales, or people, from history. Though, I will do my best to never
recommend a dry, boring, this-is-taking-me-back-to-high-school history book. :)
With that being said…
This book was published back in
2010 but the movie just came out in February so I bumped it to the top of my
reading list. (A list which is pages long, in case you were wondering. Honestly,
I don’t think I will ever reach the end.)
This book tells the remarkable
story of an Allied special force at the end of World War II tasked to find and
protect all of the fine art treasures stolen by the Nazi’s during their
conquest of Europe. Hitler had hidden art from thousands of years of European
and world culture and the Allies feared he was going to destroy it when he knew
Germany would be defeated.
Numerous art curators, scholars, historians,
architects and archivists, from over 13 different Allied countries, were tasked to spearhead this operation. The beginning of the book was rather slow but as
soon as the treasure hunt picks up I was swept into the story as the men and
women risked their lives to locate and restore thousands of years of art,
statues and treasures from certain elimination at Nazi hands.
If you are looking for an exceptional story from a well-documented time
in history, this would be a great read.
