Modern-day 'Monuments Men': Smithsonian, US Army partner to preserve culture amid war.
The U.S. Army Reserve and the Smithsonian are partnering to establish a modern-day"Monuments Men" program, reviving a cultural preservation effort that has its roots in World War II.
In October, the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative and U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command at Fort Bragg signed an agreement to train service members in cultural preservation. The partnership provides military support to respond to threats to cultural heritage seen in major conflict zones, as needed, including the Middle East and northern Syria.
In 2015, the Islamic State released a video that showed militants using sledgehammers to destroy artifacts in Iraq's Mosul Museum. The same year, ISIS took hold of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Syria, and blew up one of the city's biggest tourist attractions, the 1,900-year-old Temple of Baalshamin.
"When you're targeting cultural heritage, in some ways you're also targeting the people that the cultural heritage is linked to," Wegener said. Based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, traditional Reserve officers who enter the program will become military government specialists under the Civil Affairs officer branch. These technical experts will use their civilian skills in a military context, according to a news release from the Army Reserve. This new partnership with the Smithsonian establishes a specialization in art preservation.
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