This is the story of the Allied soldiers who saved Italy’s art during World War II. It is also the story of the heroic efforts made by superintendents of fine arts in cities all over Italy to protect their art treasures by hiding them in remote villages and castles.
The book recounts many daring rescues of priceless works of art. It tells of the heartbreaking bombing of Monte Cassino by Allied planes, the ruin of Florence’s Ponte Vecchio by the Germans, and details the destruction of churches and palaces throughout the land.
To do The Venus Fixer’s justice would take a semester’s study with an art historian, preferably one who spoke Italian. Musical-sounding names that end in vowels: Maneli, Medici, Michelangelo, Montegufoni, Ghiberti, Giotto, Guicciardini, Bernardini, Botticelli, Buffalmacco, Borgia, delight the eye, the ear and the imagination of the reader.
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