One of THE MONUMENTS MEN's paintings: Cardinal Potier Gesvres, ink and watercolor

One of THE MONUMENTS MEN found paintings: Cardinal Potier Gesvres by Pompeo Batoni, 1758,  ink and watercolor sketch in my art-notebook.  I painted this quickly, standing in front of the original oil at the San Diego Museum of Art.

This is one of two paintings lawfully bought by the San Diego Museum of Art, in exhibition at the moment, which were once stolen and placed in salt mines by the Nazis during WWII. The movie: THE MONUMENTS MEN, just opened last week, tells the story of this terrible event, where thousands of paintings, sculptures, and other art objects had been confiscated and stolen by the Nazis, placed in underground mines, with the ulterior motive of creating a super-museum. "The Monuments Men", were a group of men and women who risked and sometimes lost their lives, protecting, searching and finding many of the art pieces.