Here is a great article about how the Monuments Men in Italy helped to save countless works of historical and artistic significance as WW2 was drawing to an end.
It is indeed amazing to think how those precious arts were preserved and restored during and after the war. While waiting to climb the Pisa tower, I visited Campo Santo and was very impressed by the beauty of some statues there. Like this one, Tomb of Ottaviano Fabrizio Mossotti | Flickr - Photo Sharing!. She would just literally appear to be alive in a B&W photo, really amazing.
