The Keeper of Lost Art

Paperback, 352 pages

Published by William Morrow.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-320601-4

(1 review)

During World War II, a girl makes an unbreakable connection with a boy sheltering in her family’s Tuscan villa, where the treasures of the Uffizi Galleries are hidden. A moving coming-of-age story about the power of art in wartime, based on true events.

As Allied bombs rain down on Torino in the autumn of 1942, Stella Costa’s mother sends her to safety with distant relatives in a Tuscan villa. There, Stella finds her family tasked with a great responsibility: hiding nearly 300 priceless masterpieces from Florence, including Botticelli’s famous Primavera.

With the arrival of German troops imminent, Stella finds herself a stranger in her family’s villa and she struggles to understand why her aunt doesn’t like her. She knows it has something to do with her parents—and the fact that her father, who is currently fighting at the front, has been largely absent from her life.

When a wave of …

During World War II, a girl makes an unbreakable connection with a boy sheltering in her family’s Tuscan villa, where the treasures of the Uffizi Galleries are hidden. A moving coming-of-age story about the power of art in wartime, based on true events.

As Allied bombs rain down on Torino in the autumn of 1942, Stella Costa’s mother sends her to safety with distant relatives in a Tuscan villa. There, Stella finds her family tasked with a great responsibility: hiding nearly 300 priceless masterpieces from Florence, including Botticelli’s famous Primavera.

With the arrival of German troops imminent, Stella finds herself a stranger in her family’s villa and she struggles to understand why her aunt doesn’t like her. She knows it has something to do with her parents—and the fact that her father, who is currently fighting at the front, has been largely absent from her life.

When a wave of refugees seeks shelter in the villa, Stella befriends Sandro, an orphaned boy with remarkable artistic talent. Amid the growing threats, Sandro and Stella take refuge in the villa’s “treasure room,” where the paintings are hidden. There, Botticelli’s masterpiece and other works of art become a solace, an inspiration, and the glue that bonds Stella and Sandro as the dangers grow.

A troop of German soldiers requisitions the villa and puts everyone to forced labor. Now, with the villa full of German soldiers, refugees, a secret guest, and hundreds of priceless treasures, no one knows who will emerge unscathed, and whether the paintings will be taken as spoils or become unintended casualties.

Inspired by the incredible true story of a single Tuscan villa used as a hiding place for the treasures of Florentine art during World War II, The Keeper of Lost Art takes readers on a breathtaking journey into one of the darkest chapters of Italy’s history, highlighting the incredible courage of everyday people to protect some of the most important works of art in western civilization.

1 edition

WhiskeyintheJar reviewed The Keeper of Lost Art by Laura Morelli

Importance of Humanities, indulged a bit

4 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

“That's the power of art,” the maestra adds. “It can tell a story. An official story. But each one of you might also see your own story in it. At a minimum, you might find hope, even when there is darkness.”

The Keeper of Lost Art was a historical fiction story told from a twelve year old girl's eyes in Italy during World War II. It's a coming of age character story inside a dark historical time period. It's 1942 Italy and Stella has been sent to the countryside by her mother to her uncle and aunt's, in hopes it will be safer for her. Stella has never met them but with two girl cousins around her age, even with an aunt that seems to dislike her, she's trying …

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

“That's the power of art,” the maestra adds. “It can tell a story. An official story. But each one of you might also see your own story in it. At a minimum, you might find hope, even when there is darkness.”

The Keeper of Lost Art was a historical fiction story told from a twelve year old girl's eyes in Italy during World War II. It's a coming of age character story inside a dark historical time period. It's 1942 Italy and Stella has been sent to the countryside by her mother to her uncle and aunt's, in hopes it will be safer for her. Stella has never met them but with two girl cousins around her age, even with an aunt that seems to dislike her, she's trying to fit it. Her uncle was the driver for the owners of the villa but with the English owners escaping to Switzerland, Stella's family is left in charge. It makes her uncle's decision to agree to hide paintings from the Uffizi Galleries even more brave and dangerous. As the war rages on, even the countryside begins to feel it's effects as German soldiers and then all nationalities descend on their villa, all while Stella gets a front row seat to the vagaries of human nature and the importance and meaning of cultural art.

All they want is an end to the interminable suffering, a solution that will bring their husbands and sons and fathers back to them. And they just want to go home.

Having the story told from a twelve year old girl's eyes, who ends up fifteen by the end of the story, added a naiveté that worked to allow the author to add historical explanations and emotional building while keeping the gritty and darkest tones at bay. The aunt knows the threat of violence specific to Stella and her cousins but Stella doesn't quite comprehend it, as she ages she emotionally grows and it starts to creep into her conscious but the tone and direction of the story was more about how works of art, cultural touchstones, can inspire and give people reasons to hope during dark times. The works hidden at the villa focus on Botticellis', specifically his Primavera. When Stella befriends, Sandro, a refugee boy her age, his interest in art builds her own and we get looks at how much art can mean to people.

“You mean we risk our lives to save the paintings,” Sandro says. Signor Fasola stands silent for a long time. “Yes. That is the reality of it. But we can't let them take or destroy whatever they want.” “But...why us?” Sandro asks. “Why not us?” Signor Fasola says, the twin frames of his glasses reflecting the glowing light. “If we don't take some action---any one of us---then who will?”

I thought the middle and latter half dragged a bit as the story began to, not quite wax poetic, but indulge in the emotional hope and uplifting of cultural art. As it's told from Stella, there's allowance for a less outwardly scope but these people were starving and living in threat from all avenues, so the continued art talk started to drag-on. Even though Stella and her specific family were fictional, the historical events and villas in the Italian countryside hiding art to protect it from war, were all true. Each chapter started with a fictional entry from Botticelli's diary and an American Captain from the famed Monuments Men and Women division that worked to save and recover cultural artifacts. This was a good additive as Botticelli's musings from the 1400s echoed the Captain's from the 1940s, showing shared importance and circular problems humans create for themselves.

A long chain of people who cared enough to risk their lives, to devote their whole careers, to preserving the things that matter. Artist or no artist.

You'll begin to care for Stella and the characters that start to make-up her family, part of the dragging issues in the latter half I discussed involve abandoning these human characters in favor of the art, and realize that, yes, saving the Humanities, is extremely important. The ending delivered sadness and hope, with Stella taking what she learned during those three years and having the courage to chase those wants and dreams.

Subjects

Historical fiction