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The Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on how ISIS* is profiting from its theft and looting of antiquities, artifacts, and other cultural materials. The hearing also explored the terrorist group’s destruction of cultural symbols it finds inconsistent with its ideology. Witnesses included the director of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield, whose mission is to protect international cultural property during periods of armed conflict, and the author of the book The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History that was adapted into a motion picture.

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House and Senate leaders held a ceremony to award the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of the Monuments Men, a group of men and women who protected and recovered historical sites and cultural artifacts during World War II.

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The Monuments Men Foundation, created to honor and further the work of the World War II art experts who saved cultural treasures looted by the Nazis, will probably cease ongoing operations this month, its creator said Wednesday.

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