NOTE: THIS LECTURE IS SPONSORED BY ANN KENNEY LYNCH AND KENT LYNCH IN MEMORY OF THEIR FATHERS, CORNELIUS J. KENNEY AND HOWARD V. LYNCH, WHO SERVED IN WORLD WAR II.

Presented by Dr. Julia C. Fischer, Associate Professor of Art History, Lamar University.

The 2014 film The Monuments Men popularized the efforts of American and British men and women to protect sites of cultural importance and to recover artworks stolen by the Nazis during World War II, but there is much more to the story than depicted in the Hollywood film.

Dr. Fischer will shed light on Hitler’s grand designs for a Führermuseum and his systematic looting of museums and private art collections. She will examine the formation and role of the Monuments Men program in Northern Europe and Italy at the end of World War II, detailing their mission, successes, and tragic art losses. She will also discuss their efforts in Japan, the country hit by more bombs than any other during World War II. Finally, Dr. Fischer will share the ongoing legacy of the Monuments Men by discussing two examples of twenty-first century Monuments Men.

Fischer is Associate Professor of Art History at Lamar University, teaching courses in ancient, Renaissance, and Asian art and art crime. She holds degrees from Loyola University Chicago, the University of Missouri, and the Ohio State University.