The very first Monuments Man

1793, the French Revolutions year of terror, saw, paradoxically, the creation of a museum. At that point the revolution took a radical turn, and rage against the ancien rgime flared up in the destruction of everything associated with feudal rule. The basilica of Saint-Denis, the resting place of the French kings, incurred severe damage: monuments were smashed to pieces and the treasury emptied. But a contemporary print shows a man resisting the vandalsheroically but apparently in vain. He stands