The learning process around our shop never ends which makes for a both challenging but rewarding environment. We are constantly exposed to new areas in which we have less experience than others who have worked in these fields for years. However, lots of life experiences and other business backgrounds provide a quick learning curve and seem to have served us well to date.

The placement of films in theaters for a nationwide release is more art than science in the field of documentary films as evidenced by the juggling of dates that has taken place these past few months. There are so many considerations, many of which do not involve our film, that it is a time consuming and somewhat frustrating experience, especially when dealing with others who think that asking you “so when will the film be in theaters?” is an easy question to answer.

We have had good fortune follow our film, some of which is due to word of mouth from those who have seen it during one or more of our museum screenings. In fact, that was part of our plan and hope. The film will have its national premiere in New York City at the esteemed Paris and Angelika Theaters on September 14th followed by premieres in Boston, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles on September 28th. I am so pleased we have been able, working with Neil Friedman and his distribution team at Menemsha Films, to introduce this great film to people not only in these important cities but others across the country in the weeks that will follow.

For those of you in my home town of Dallas, the film will begin its local run at the Angelika on October 19th!! For those of you who have seen it, I hope you will help us further by spreading the word about the film!!

Many of my friends and colleagues have been unable to view the Charlie Rose program given the short notice we received about his decision to air the program. In fact, we had all of an hour and a half from the time we received the call about his decision to place it as the lead story for the initial show last week. I was at dinner with the Eisenhower Institute folks including Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of General Eisenhower, when I learned of the news about the program. While we hurriedly tried to contact all those we could, it was virtually impossible given the hour to reach many people. The show was available for view on his website for a week, but the posting was removed from his site BUT CAN BE SEEN NOW at the following link: http://video.google.com/robert_edsel_and_charlie_rose.

Charlie was incredibly gracious and clearly enthusiastic about the subject matter. He had obviously read the book as he asked me a number of insightful questions off air during the running of the the three film clips from our film, The Rape of Europa. As anyone who has watched Charlie’s show knows, he fires questions at the interviewee very quickly; my experience was no different. As a result, it is very difficult to steer the conversation in any particular direction. For example, I had hoped that the topic of Iraq and the looting of the National Museum in Baghdad would have come up, but it didn’t. I was able to explain the distinction in why the removal of cultural treasures from Russia is in my view a more complicated situation than other situations of looting. This is a topic that repeatedly arises in the question and answer sessions that follow my lectures.

The Charlie Rose Show has always been, by my way of thinking, one of the most interesting programs because of the intensity of the host and the knowledge he possesses on so many diverse subjects. It was a great honor to be invited on the show and experience such a lively exchange with him on this great subject, in particular the Monuments Men and their heroic role during World War II. There has been tremendous spill-over benefit to our project from the contacts we have received from people who did see the program for which I am most grateful. I hope you will have a chance to see the program if you didn’t previously.

My interview last week with Jerry Newberry, director of communications for the VFW, is available for those of you who wish to listen by double-clicking on the following link: Rescuing Da Vinci on National Defense. The show will be broadcast on the National Defense website and on 46 radio stations including all United States military bases worldwide. It will reach some one million listeners. I am very hopeful this will open some doors for us by getting the story greater exposure and will result in us receiving much needed information on unidentified Monuments Men.

Jerry Newberrry left on Thursday for a month-long trip to visit our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon his return I have been asked to do anther show with him in which we will broadcast for the first time audio portions of interviews we’ve conducted with several prominent Monuments Men. As soon as we have a date for that program, I will let you know.

(This august group gathered to witness the return to Belgium of Michelangelo’s extraordinary sculpture known as the Bruges Madonna. Standing, from left to right are Lt. Col. Ernest DeWald, MFAA officer in Austria, Emile Langui, Belgian official, Capt. Steven Kovalyak, U.S. Army, Lt. Craig Hugh Smyth, MFAA officer and Director of the Munich Collecting Point, Dr. Andrew Ritchie, civilian advisor to the MFAA in Munich, Cdr. George Boas, U.S. Naval Attache, U.S. Embassy in Belgium, and Maj. Bancel LaFarge, senior MFAA officer with the U.S. 12th Army.)

We have been so focused on finding the Monuments Men and posting their biographies that I have completely overlooked providing everyone with a progress report on our efforts. Sorry — too much focus!!!

The list of Monuments Men (and women) we have created contains 387 names; 357 men and 30 women with a country of origin breakdown as follows:

United States 97 — England 11 — France 2 — Poland 2 — Germany 8
Netherlands 5 — Belgian 3 — Hungary 1 — Czechoslovakia 1

Research Continues 254

In the past year we have located 11 living Monuments Men each of whom is extensively written about on our website, www.rescuingdavinci.com. Additionally, there are 62 Monuments Men who are deceased for whom we have detailed biographies with photographs for many, but not all. (WE NEED YOUR HELP IN FINDING PHOTOGRAPHS OF ANY MONUMENTS MAN OR WOMAN ON OUR WEBSITE FOR WHOM YOU DO NOT SEE A PHOTO POSTED.) There are another 135 Monuments Men for whom we have compiled biographies in various stages of development while further research is being conducted. That leaves 190 Monuments Men who we are still trying to locate and research and develop profiles.

We need all the help we can get on learning more about each Monument man and woman. General information, photographs, family contacts or next of kin, and even basic leads are all helpful to our effort. If you want to help us find these unrecognized heroes and participate in helping us write the final chapter to this incredible story, please forward any information you have to us via this website or the www.rescuingdavinci.com website.Please–don’t assume we know it or have it; all your responses are helpful!!! We can’t have too much information on these great men and women.

(Monuments Officers Lts. Lamont Moore and Sheldon Keck inspect looted Polish treasure found deep inside the salt mine in Grasleben, Germany which they found in April, 1945.)

Today we announced a joint venture with Military.com (http://www.military.com/), the 10th largest news site in existence!!! With over 8 million members, Military.com is the largest online military destination fielding over 6 million unique visitors daily. Through their “Buddy Finder” system, Military.com members and new members have access to over 20 million military records!!! Under the terms of the joint venture, all Military.com members will receive a special discount when purchasing a copy of Rescuing Da Vinci. This will provide us with an immediately large audience of current military families as well as those of veterans which should be of tremendous help as we continue our search to find and honor each of the “Monuments Men” who saved so much of our western world heritage from destruction during World War II.

I believe that this joint venture will greatly accelerate our effort to find every one of these Monuments Men–or their families– and allow us to identify those soldiers in photos included in my book for whom we currently have no name. TIME IS URGENT, HOWEVER. Each day we lose veterans of World War II and with them goes precious information we need to not just find these important men and women, but also help solve the remaining mysteries of Hitler and the Nazis’ theft of Europe and Russia.

I am very excited about being asked by the folks at Military.com to contribute from time to time exclusive Podcast interviews, along with occasional articles and editorials, to their impressive web site. This will be a wonderful forum to keep their large community of members informed on our progress of finding the Monuments Men as well as the continuing developments of this exciting story.

I want to thank Ashleigh Emerick at Military.com, and Jed Wallace at MPH PR (http://www.mphpr.com/), for their vision concerning this joint venture–and its importance–and in getting it concluded so quickly. Also, thanks again to our team at Target Scope (http://www.targetscope.com/) for their efficient and creative handling of the special web pages and back office work that will make it easy for our new visitors from the Military.com family to learn about our project, contribute to it, and purchase the book.

I encourage you to visit the Military.com web site. It is very interesting and content rich.

(click photo to enlarge)

The photograph on the front cover of Rescuing Da Vinci shows Monuments Men returning the priceless painting by Leonardo da Vinci entitled, “Lady with an Ermine,” to the Czartoryski Museum in Cracow, Poland in April, 1946. The officer holding the painting is Polish Monuments Man Karol Estreicher, a national hero in Poland. Until today we knew only the name of the American Monuments officer standing to his left, holding the protective wrapping paper: Lt. Frank P. Albright. Our search for details of Lt. Albright has extended for almost a year without result until today. Unfortunately, Lt. Albright died 7 years ago at the age of 96, but we now know about his career and, like so many of these heroes, the interesting life he had. Please visit our website, http://www.rescuingdavinci.com/ to learn about the life of Lt. Frank P. Albright. Standing on either side of the two Monuments Officers are two, still unidentified, U.S. soldiers providing security for the trainloads of art and other important cultural materials that were being returned to Poland along with da Vinci’s masterpiece. We know that the soldier on the right was a part of U.S. Seventh Army, but sad to say that is all. If you can help us identify either of these men please contact us with the details. We want to know who they were and all we can find out about their role in this great story.