Monuments Man is the war story that our father, James J. Rorimer, never fully told us. Not that he was reluctant to talk about the war. We knew he was proud of the role he had played as a monuments officer in the Monuments, Fine Arts & Archives Section in France, Germany, and Austria. But he had written this book shortly after returning from Europe. By the time we, his children, were coming of age, both world wars were rapidly receding into history, and he was too fully occupied with directing the Metropolitan Museum of Art to dwell on the recent past.

Not until Robert M. Edsel brought the story of the monuments men to a broader public, with the publication in 2009 of his book The Monuments Men, did we take the time to read our father’s 1950 memoir, originally entitled Survival: The Salvage and Protection of Art in War. Robert’s dedication and encouragement inspired us to dust off our few remaining copies of Survival, unearth our father’s wartime letters, and finally acquaint ourselves with the scope of his legacy. These relatively recent developments, along with many requests for copies of Survival over the years, inspired our effort to reissue his book. In the course of our work, we came to realize that the long-unheralded work of the monuments men marked a historic turning point in the development, not only of national responsibility for preservation of art in war, but also more broadly in recognition of the rights of all cultures to their unique patrimonies.

Background

Louis Rorimer is the son of monuments man James Rorimer.  Born in 1947, Louis grew up in New York City and concentrated in history at Harvard College. His undergraduate thesis was Military Intelligence in the Writings of Xenophon. He served in the US Navy before attending law school at Case Western Reserve University.

After graduation in 1975, Louis joined the Cleveland office of Jones Day. He practiced corporate and securities law, focusing on executive compensation, and retired from the firm in 2011.

As a partner at Jones Day, he wrote widely about equity compensation and was a frequent speaker at conferences in the US and abroad. In 2000, he published a treatise on global equity compensation, entitled International Stock Plans: The Practitioner’s Guide to Exporting Employee Equity. It is now maintained as an online resource at www.naspp.com.

Louis’s family has been involved for over 100 years in management of Snake Hill Farm, L.P., in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. The farm produces certified organic vegetables, Belted Galloway beef cattle, and maple syrup. Details can be found at www.snakehillfarm.com.