Frederick Hartt, the Monuments Man who saved Italian art during WWII

Frederick Hartt (1914–1991), an American art historian and Renaissance scholar, served as an officer in the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFAA) program of the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1946. He was responsible for salvaging and restoring war-damaged artworks and monuments in Tuscany, and recovering works looted by the Nazis. Hartt used his jeep "Lucky 13" to collect paintings and statues scattered across Tuscany and return them to their original museums. His book "Florentine Art Under Fire" (1949) documents these efforts. After the war, Hartt continued his work as a member of the Committee to Rescue the Italian Art (CRIA) following the 1966 Florence flood. He received the Bronze Star, the Knight of the Crown of Italy (1946), the Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1967), and honorary citizenship of Florence. His ashes were interred at the Porte Sante cemetery in Florence in 1993. Hartt's archive is held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.