1943: Tucked away in the idyllic hills south of Florence, the Rosatis, an Italian family of noble lineage, believe that the walls of their ancient villa will keep them safe from the war raging across Europe. Eighteen-year-old Cristina spends her days swimming in the pool, playing with her young niece and nephew, and wandering aimlessly amid the estate's gardens and olive groves. But when two soldiers, a German and an Italian, arrive at the villa asking...

As Adolf Hitler attempted to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he would collect and the "degenerate" works he would destroy. Behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, and art historians raced against time to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture. (Bestseller)...

An unlikely World War II platoon has been tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. With the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could they possibly succeed? But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time, they would risk their lives to protect...

"The world was stunned when eighty-year old Cornelius Gurlitt became an international media superstar in November 2013 on the discovery of over 1,400 artworks in his 1,076 square-foot Munich apartment, valued at around $1.35 billion. Gurlitt became known as a man who never was - he didn't have a bank account, never paid tax, never received social security. He simply did not exist. He had been hard-wired into a life of shadows and secrecy by his own...

"In 2009, eighty-five-year-old art professor Ludka Zeilonka gets drawn into a political firestorm when her grandson Tommy is among a group of gay Massachusetts teachers fired for allegedly silencing Christian kids in high school classrooms. The ensuing battle to reinstate the teachers raises the specter of Ludka's World War II past--a past she's spent a lifetime trying to forget ... As Ludka's influential family defends Tommy under increasingly vicious...

It is a secret that has been hidden for more than a half century. . . . The clues have been scattered across the globe. Now someone has begun to piece them together-and the future of the world depends on his being stopped in time. In Maryland, a vicious gang breaks into the National Cryptologic Museum and steals a Nazi Enigma machine. In a London hospital, an Auschwitz survivor is murdered in his bed, his killers making off with a macabre trophy-his...

"...In a race against time, a group of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others--called the Monuments Men--risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture. Focusing on the period between D-Day and V-E Day, this acclaimed book follows six Monument Men on their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis."--

"As the most destructive war in history ravaged Europe, many of the world's most cherished cultural objects were in harm's way. The Greatest Treasure Hunt in History recounts the astonishing true story of eleven men and one woman who risked their lives amidst the bloodshed of World War II to preserve churches, libraries, monuments, and works of art that for centuries defined the heritage of Western civilization. As the war raged, these American and...

In 1945, US intelligence officers in Manila discovered that the Japanese had hidden large quantities of gold bullion and other looted treasure in the Philippines. President Truman decided to recover the gold but to keep its riches secret. These, combined with Japanese treasure recovered during the US occupation, and with recovered Nazi loot, would create a worldwide American political action fund to fight communism. This "Black Gold" gave Washington...

"In Los Angeles, a desperate man seeks out renowned archaeologist Nina Wilde and her husband, ex--SAS soldier Eddie Chase--only to be gunned down in front of them. The assassin is soon identified as a ninety-year-old Nazi war criminal--with the body of a healthy forty-year-old. Following the victim's final warnings, Nina and Eddie travel to Cairo to inspect the newly discovered tomb of Alexander the Great. But the real find is hidden in one of its...