The Modern Day Monuments Men

The Modern Day Monuments Men–  Several weeks ago, I saw a great movie that’s good for history geeks and art nerds, like myself and the other people who read this blog. The Monuments Men is a great story of American, British and French artists and art historians going into Allied-occupied areas of Europe, trying to protect the great treasures dating from the Renaissance to the modern era, from Michelangelo to Mondrian. Many people don’t realize that there’s a modern day Monuments Men active today. They are hidden under all of the war and destruction in the Middle East, and finding out about them has somewhat restored my hope for the region. The group is called the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology (APSA), and they are the modern day Monuments Men. The current events in Syria are probably the last thing one would expect to turn up on the blog of an art gallery. But here’s something that not many people hear about. Because of the ongoing Syrian Civil War, there have been many monuments and artworks damaged or even destroyed. Recently, historic buildings in cities like Homs and Aleppo have been reduced to rubble. APSA is a group of archaeologists and professors that has been protecting Syria’s cultural sites and artifacts, endangering their lives as they travel to battlefields and war zones. APSA is “dedicated to protecting the country’s mosques, Crusader castles and museums full of ancient treasures, and to stopping smugglers from profiting on the spoils of war,” according to APSA’s founder Cheikhmous Ali.