If you’re excited about the Monuments Men movie, you might be curious who the characters are. Today I wanted to fill you in on the real person behind Matt Damon’s character. 

In the movie, he’s called James Granger. In real life the Monuments Man was Second Lieutenant James J. Rorimer. Before joining the military in WWII, Rorimer had already become a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was an expert in medieval art and his determined personality made him perfect for the tough world of immediately post-Nazi Paris. In the midst of the changing waves of control, he entered the city that had avoided destruction. However her art had been scattered to the four winds: some stolen by the Nazis, others like the Mona Lisa hidden from view. All missing pieces needed to be identified and then located. With the help of Rose Valland — the woman I’ll talk about tomorrow, he was able to locate crucial information that eventually lead to Germany.

On the homefront, he’d left a pregnant wife behind. He missed the first two years of his daughter’s life because he was in Europe.

You can learn more about Rorimer here and here.