Ukraine War Heralds Need for New, Delayed ‘Monuments Officers’ Unit
The New York Times
Civilian specialists are tracking the threat to landmarks in Ukraine as the U.S. Army struggles after more than two years to create a new cultural heritage preservation squad modeled after the “Monuments Men.”
For months before the bombs started falling, Hayden Bassett watched over the cultural riches of Ukraine — the cathedrals of Kyiv, the historic buildings of Lviv, museums across the country and the ancient burial sites that dot its steppes.
Using satellite imagery, Bassett, 32, an archaeologist and director of the Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab at the Virginia Museum of Natural History, has monitored and mapped much of the country’s national heritage as part of a civilian effort to mark the sites that could be devastated by war.
This is the kind of job envisioned for a U.S. Army unit being created to succeed the storied Monuments Men of World War II, who recovered millions of European treasures looted by the Nazis. But more than two years after the Army, with some fanfare, announced the new effort, styled after the old, of dedicated art experts working in a military capacity to preserve the treasures of the past, the program is still not up and running.
