James Rorimer

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James Joseph Rorimer (born September 7, 1905 in Cleveland , Ohio , † May 11, 1966 in New York ) was an American art historian and curator and later director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Live and act

Rorimer, son of the interior designer Louis Rorimer (1872-1939) and his wife Edith, studied art history at Harvard University , where he was a student of Paul J. Sachs (1878-1965). From 1927 he worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and was curator of its department for medieval art and the branch of the museum The Cloisters . In 1942 Rorimer married Katherine Serrell, who worked for the museum.

Since 1943, as an art protection officer in World War II, he was one of the leading figures in the European Department for the Protection of Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section . As one of the so-called "Monuments Men", it was his job to track down and secure looted art from the National Socialists . Among other things, the art collections of Hermann Göring , Joseph Goebbels and Alfred Rosenberg were among them . After the Allied invasion of France in June 1944 , Rose Valland , who worked at the Paris Museum Jeu de Paume , entrusted Rorimer with details of the National Socialist art theft in December of that year. Valland's documentation was particularly helpful for the assignment of stolen works that had been kept after interim storage in the Jeu de Paume in Neuschwanstein Castle . After the war he was involved in the organization of the Munich Central Collecting Point as the central collection point for found works of art in Munich. Rorimer received several awards for his work during this time. In 1956 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Upon his return to the United States, Rorimer became a curator again, then in 1949 director of The Cloisters . From 1955 until his death in 1966 he was director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Representation in the film

In February 2014, the film, based on the book by Robert M. Edsel, Monuments Men - Unusual Heroes was released . George Clooney directed and acted as the main actor in the role of George Stout - head of the company and later director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston ; Rorimer is played by Matt Damon , Rose Valland by Cate Blanchett .

Publications (selection)

  • Ultra-violet Rays and Their Use in the Examination of Works of Art . New York 1931.
  • Mediaeval Monuments at the Cloisters as They Were and as They Are . New York 1941.
  • Survival. The Salvage and Protection of Art in War. New York 1950.

literature

  • Alpheus Hyatt Mayor: James J. Rorimer (1905-1966). In: The Art journal 26, 1966, 44-46.
  • Calvin Tomkins: Merchants & Masterpieces. The Story of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Revised and updated edition, H. Holt, New York 1989, ISBN 0-8050-1034-3 .
  • Cay Friemuth: The stolen art. The dramatic race to save the cultural treasures after the Second World War. Kidnapping, recovery and restitution of European cultural assets 1939–1948. Westermann, Braunschweig 1989, ISBN 3-07-500060-4 .
  • Lynn H. Nicholas: The Rape of Europa. The fate of European works of art in the Third Reich. Kindler, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-463-40248-3 .
  • Robert M. Edsel, Bret Witter: The Monuments Men. Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History . Arrow, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-84809-103-0 .
    • German: Robert M. Edsel, Bret Witter: Monuments Men. On the hunt for Hitler's looted art . Translated by Hans Freundl, Residenz-Verlag, St. Pölten 2013, ISBN 978-3-7017-3304-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rose Valland , monumentsmenfoundation.org, accessed September 11, 2013.
  2. ↑ Stefanie Peter: "Monuments Men". The hunters of the stolen Nazi treasures , cicero.de, accessed on September 10, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Rorimer, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rorimer, James Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American art historian
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleveland , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 1966
Place of death new York