When Robert Edsel was 42 — having sold his Texas oil- and gas-exploration business for $37 million — he, his wife and their 3-year-old son moved to Florence, Italy, in search of "something different."

Robert Edsel, author of The Monuments Men, responded to viewer comments and questions.

Robert Edsel talked about his book, Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures From the Nazis, in which he reports on the rescue and protection of historic pieces of art in Italy during World War II. The Nazi Army, who occupied Italy in 1943, looted numerous historic artifacts and artwork that dated from the Renaissance and the Roman Empire. In his book, the author recounts the Allied mission to reacquire the artwork and focuses on the efforts of two men, art scholar Fred Hartt and artist Deane Keller, who pursued missing works by Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and Donatello.

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After nearly seven decades, the men and women of the Army’s Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program, the “Monuments Men,” are having one heckuva of a moment. The international unit, chiefly Americans and Brits, who helped hunt down and rescue priceless cultural and artistic treasures — by da Vinci, Rodin, Michelangelo — looted by the Nazis during World War II, are getting a chorus of hosannas locally and nationally.

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