The real Monuments Men

Dr Nigel Pollard discusses the British Army’s role in protecting cultural heritage during the Second World War. The Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Act of 2017 committed the UK to ratify the 1954 Hague Convention on the protection of heritage and other cultural property in conflict zones.

In this context, the UK is also now creating a specialist unit for cultural property protection within its armed forces. But such a unit existed once before - the ‘Monuments Men’ whose activities to protect art and monuments were largely forgotten until the 2014 film starring George Clooney.

This talk examines the reality behind the film, with an emphasis on the British contribution to that organisation.