TOLEDO – The Toledo Museum of Art recently entered into an agreement with the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art as a charter member of the Monuments Men and Women Museum Network, one of a growing number of museums worldwide to participate in the partnership program.
The museum network was created to recognize the pre- and post-war contributions of the approximately 350 men and women – art professors, museum curators, archivists and librarians – that greatly influenced the growth and success of many of the world’s leading cultural and educational institutions. Museum collections the world over contain one or more works of art saved by the Monuments Men during World War II, and others that later entered their holdings after being restituted by the Monuments Men and Women to the rightful owners.
“The Toledo Museum of Art has been a long-standing and proud supporter of the mission of the Monuments Men Foundation and is proud to be one of the charter members of the Monuments Men and Women Museum Network,” said Adam M. Levine, the museum’s Edward Drummond and Florence Scott Libbey director and CEO.
“The success of our efforts to honor the Monuments Men and Women has, until now, been focused on their wartime service,” said foundation president Anna Bottinelli. “The creation of the Monuments Men and Women Museum Network will for the first time bring much deserved visibility to their immense contribution to museums and cultural life in the United States, and elsewhere, both before and after the war. As part of the educational component of the Foundation’s mission, the museum network will also enable partner institutions to profile their respective Monuments Men and Women connections.”
The partnership program offers all MMF members a 10% discount at TMA’s Museum Store. The benefit is available in-person at the Museum Store by presenting the MMF membership card.
“A partnership with the Monuments Men Foundation is a natural extension of Otto Wittmann’s time as a Monuments Man during and after WWII. Directly following his assignment as a Monuments Man, Otto Wittmann joined TMA as assistant director and then later became the Museum’s fourth director,” said Toledo Museum of Art Archivist Julie McMaster. “In his role as a Monuments Man, Otto Wittmann worked for the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, as a member of the Art Looting Investigating Unit, interrogating key figures in the theft of art and facilitating repatriation to the country from which artwork was stolen.”
For more information, visit www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/museum-network.
