Robert Edsel

Author and Founder & President of the Monuments Men Foundation

A former nationally ranked tennis player and pioneering oilman, Robert Edsel is recognized as one of the world’s foremost advocates for art preservation and the recovery of cultural treasures missing since World War II. The last ten years of his life have been dedicated to the meticulous research of the Monuments Men and women, the soldier-scholars who helped save so many of the world’s great art and cultural treasures from the destruction of war and theft by the Nazis. 

Robert Edsel is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of three non-fiction books, Rescuing Da Vinci, The Monuments Men, and Saving Italy. Edsel is also the co-producer of the award-winning documentary film, The Rape of Europa. In addition, he is the Founder and Chairman of the nonprofit, Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, which received the National Humanities Medal, our nation’s highest honor for work in the humanities field. 

Edsel has been awarded the “Texas Medal of Arts” Award; the “President’s Call to Service” Award; and the “Hope for Humanity” Award, presented by the Dallas Holocaust Museum. He also serves as a Trustee at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. 

Academy Award recipient George Clooney wrote, directed and starred in a film based on Edsel’s book, The Monuments Men. The film, which included acclaimed actors Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Hugh Bonneville, Jean Dujardin and Bob Balaban, was released in theaters on February 7, 2014.