The Last Masterpiece by Laura Morelli

"Look, none of us, nobody, is going to live forever. But we're here for the things that will live forever. We're here for the idea of family, not just our own families. We're here for freedom, and not just our own. And these...musty old paintings as you call them, they're the living embodiment of that idea. They're not just for the Italians. They're for all of us."

                  -Josie, from the novel

Another novel of WWII but set in Italy. It involves two women in the midst of the war (1943) trying to save important Italian art from the destruction of the war. Eva Brunner is a photographer on the side of the Nazis, documenting the paintings and sculptures the Germans are trying to "save." American Josephine "Josie" Evans, a 5th Army WAC, becomes a stenographer who also documents Italian masterpieces in the effort to keep them safe.

Written by an art historian, there is much---maybe too much---vivid detail about the art being found, hidden, or looted. Much of it, I had never heard of. I have rated the novel a 3 because it just became tedious to me. I found myself just wanting to be done! 

Descriptions of Florence called the "jewel of the Renaissance," made me want to go back and explore the place that one character described this way: "the whole city is a work of art." I am going to include some pictures here. The Duomo of Florence, an amazing cathedral and a painting mentioned many times in the novel, Adam and Eve by Luis Cranach.