Author & Art Historian Dr Laura Morelli Discusses her Historical Fiction Novel The Last Masterpiece and WWII Looting of Florentine Collections

Warfare of Art & Law Podcast

Send us a text

To learn more, please visit Laura Morelli's site.
Show Notes:

0:00 Laura Morelli discussing the WWII era art looting

1:15 genesis of writing about the looting of Florentine art collections in The Last Masterpiece

2:45 German Jewish artist Rudolph Levy as guest of German Art History Institute

4:30 Stolperstein for Levy

5:00 perspectives in WWII Italy: museum officials, German expatriates and Allies

8:30 German Eva Brunner and American Josephine Evans - characters in The Last Masterpiece

9:30 decisions on where to begin and end The Last Masterpiece

13:30 decision to use fictional characters versus historical figures in book

14:40 German Art History Institute Director Prof. Friedrich Kriegbaum

16:00 Kriegbaum’s participation in Hitler’s 1938 tour of Florence

18:25 Brunner’s back story

20:10 German photographer Hilde Lotz-Bauer who worked for Prof. Kriegbaum photographing Allied damage to historical monuments in Florence

24:15 Evans based on Women’s Army Corp (WACs)

28:25 women who worked with and supported the Monuments Men

29:00 justice in terms of the individual actions and decisions that enabled the survival of art looted during WWII

31:30 books by Robert Edsel and Ilaria Dagnini Brey

32:15 survival bias

33:30 van Dyck painting

33:40 Uffizi Director Eike Schmidt’s work for Germany to return looted Dutch painting

35:00 impact of propaganda during WWII

38:10 Michelangelo’s Secret Room with 16th C drawings

42:20 2024 release of book related to hiding places in Tuscan countryside in 1943-44

Please share your comments and/or questions at [e-mail]
To hear more episodes, please visit Warfare of Art and Law podcast's website.
Music by Toulme.
To view rewards for supporting the podcast, please visit Warfare's Patreon page.
To leave questions or comments about this or other episodes of the podcast and/or for information about joining the 2ND Saturday discussion on art, culture and justice, please message me at [e-mail].
Thanks so much for listening!
© Stephanie Drawdy [2024]

Hoofdstukken

1. World War II Art Theft Stories (00:00:00)

2. Discovering Historic Photographs in Florence (00:19:11)

3. The Women's Army Corps in WWII (00:24:15)

4. Art, Propaganda, and Hidden Rooms (00:34:57)