Robert M. Edsel has taken many turns in his life from oil and gas businessman to bestselling author and art preservation advocate.
The author and art preservation advocate are what brought him to Odessa this week to speak at the John Ben Shepperd Public Leadership Institute Distinguished Lecture Series Tuesday at the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center. Edsel speaks 20 or more times a year in the United States and in Europe.
During World War II, the Nazis looted tens of millions of cultural objects and art from museums, churches, and private collections across Europe. A small group of American and British men and women — museum curators, scholars, architects, archivists, librarians, some even artists themselves — were tasked with finding it all. They became known as The Monuments Men and their mission became the greatest treasure hunt in history, a news release said.
Edsel authored the heroes’ true story in his #1 New York Times Best-Selling book “The Monuments Men,” and worked with George Clooney to bring it to film. Edsel is an internationally renowned advocate of protecting cultural works and restoring fine art to its rightful owners.
He said the movie accomplished a key objective for him.
“It achieved what my hope was, which was to bring global recognition to who these men and women were and make the world aware of a whole other aspect of World War II, of how much was hanging in the balance. And again, wondering this question of what would the world have been like had things turned out differently, had the destruction consumed so many of these things,” Edsel said.
“When you have a film made by George Clooney and a cast like that, which he assembled with Cate Blanchett and Bill Murray and Matt Damon, and so on. We had a film shown in 100 countries around the world. The book’s been translated into 30 different languages. And as I said, it’s out there in the public lexicon — Monuments Men, Monuments Men and Women. As you know, we live in the most over-messaged world that you can imagine and getting a phrase into the global lexicon is no small feat, but it’s there,,” Edsel added.
Edsel, who now lives in Dallas, was raised in Texas and started his career in the oil industry. He founded Gemini Exploration, which pioneered the use of horizontal drilling technology, and became one of the most active drillers of U.S. horizontal wells in the mid ‘90s.
In an interview Tuesday morning, Edsel said he was in the exploration business for about 16 years from the time he was 23 until age 39.
He went to the University of Georgia and two community colleges in Dallas and finished at Southern Methodist University. He earned a degree in finance.
“But as I said, I was just eager to get out,” Edsel said.
He decided to go to Florence, Italy, to study art and architecture. At the time, Edsel said, there were 40 different American universities with campus representation in Florence, so there were a lot of art history professors that had time on their hands. He hired one of them to go around the city with him on Wednesdays and that was the start.
Edsel said he gets curious about things by seeing something or wondering about something.
“Then I start digging into it and when I get interested, yes, I’ll read everything I can get my hands on,” he said. “But that’s not my path usually into stuff. It’s more wondering or tinkering with something and that curiosity then drives it.”
He and his wife have the Monuments Men and Women Foundation.
Edsel has a son from his first marriage and two boys, 4 and 6, with his second wife, Anna, who is president of the foundation. She is from Florence.
Its website says the Monuments Men and Women Foundation has found and returned more than 30 cultural objects and artwork since its inception. The Foundation’s toll-free tip line 1-866-WWII-ART provides a simple path for those who may be in possession or have knowledge of missing objects to come forward with vital information. Callers can remain anonymous, and the Foundation will assist in the object’s restitution.
The foundation has five people on staff.
“We have performed miracles with a very, very, very small staff and I’m immensely proud of what they’ve done over these years. We could be doing a lot more to help a lot more people, but getting funding is just very, very difficult. My wife and I have put our life savings into keeping the foundation going. My time is 100 percent volunteered. I don’t seek any compensation. I never have. We have had some people come forward from time to time who have made gifts, but it’s really the biggest challenge that we face. We have an easier time finding and returning stolen objects than we do raising money for it,” Edsel said.
He has been pleased that the Army has reconstituted a Monuments Men and Women force. Edsel said it’s very much needed now they’re under attack in Ukraine and other conflict areas.
“That’s a problem that’s never going to go away unless we figure out how to end war and I don’t foresee that happening,” Edsel said.
