Today marks the 75th anniversary of “D-Day,” when Western Allied forces landed tens of thousands of troops along the Normandy coastline in what was the largest seaborne invasion in history. Today the outcome is not just well known, but legend. Countless books and films have been written about just that twenty-four hour period; many more will, no doubt, follow in the future despite the passage of time. But the success of the invasion was anything but assured. President Rooseve

This Sunday, November 11, will mark the 100th anniversary of the end of The Great War, the “war to end all wars,” back when no one imagined that they would ever need to be numbered. On this Veterans Day, our family will pause to remember and give thanks to all Americans who have served in the United States Armed Forces. My wife, and our two boys, will be inside the comfort of our home, out of harm’s way, enjoying a freedom paid for by others, a gift we all too often take for

Eight years ago, on the 63rd anniversary of the D-Day landings, I announced the formation of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art. Four Monuments Men participated in that ceremony. Today only one of those four is still with us bringing the number of living Monuments Men and women to just six. We always knew we were in a race against time to gather their stories and honor them. What I couldn’t know at the time was the degree of success the Foundation would

While tens of thousands of Allied troops were flooding the beaches of Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944), the Monuments Men were impatiently waiting to cross the English Channel for their chance to contribute. For Monuments Man James Rorimer, and future director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the gravity of the situation gripped him that day: “We are told that the invasion of Western Europe by overwhelming forces is underway…Now I am thinking of the combat troops and the ta

On February 15, 1944, after weeks of demoralizing battle, 229 waves of Allied bombers dropped 493.5 tons of high explosives and incendiaries on the historic Abbey of Monte Cassino, completely devastating the building. The decision to bomb was made based on the belief that German troops occupied the Abbey. This was the first major test of Eisenhower’s directive of December 29, 1943 which stated that commanders must “respect those monuments so far as war allows.” But Eisenhowe

It is the world’s most famous painting, and yet few people know that the Mona Lisa was once stolen. It was Monday, August 21, 1911, when Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian worker immigrated to Paris, simply walked into the Louvre museum and walked out with the Mona Lisa in his hands. As Peruggia later explained, he was acting out of patriotic motivations, trying to steal back what Napoleon had stolen from his home country. The painting was missing for more than two years before su

Tomorrow, across this great land, people will be enjoying the July 4th holiday. On the eve of those celebrations we would be well served to remember the lives of more than one million military service men and women that were sacrificed to gain independence for our nation — and preserve it — these past 230 years. During the American Revolution (1775-1783) more than 4,435 Americans gave their lives to enable the 13 colonies to unite as one nation in the war for independence fro