Fred Hartt – Oriental Screen Collector

This post is one of those occasional ones that hopes to solicit a little information while offering a very little information! The publication of Robert Edsel’s fascinating book Saving Italy : The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis (or alternatively, and slightly more excitingly, in some places – Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History) reminded me that one of the American officers charged with attempting to rescue and preserve Italy’s great artistic heritage from Nazi looting in World War Two was Fred Hartt. In the book Hartt is described as a specialist in the fine arts (indeed he was) with a specialism in French cathedrals (indeed he did) and also a “repressed homosexual” (no idea about that). He was a key figure among the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFAA) Officers in Tuscany for the Allied Military Government in Italy between 1944 and 1945. He was rather mocked by his fellow officers and art experts apparently and known as the “Tuscany Kid”.

However, Hartt was also a great collector of, and expert on, oriental screens as well, though there is precious little information on this side of his passions compared with a lot of detail regarding his knowledge of the Italian Renaissance. There appears to be bothing on his Oriental interests in his surviving papers and archive at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. So, does anyone know anything?

All this may become more interesting to some as The Monuments Men is about to become a film written, produced and starring George Clooney. Sadly IMDB doesn’t say who is playing Hartt. Apparently Matt Damon (oh well, never mind) and Cate Blenchett (hooray!) are in the film too.

Hartt in Italy in 1945