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Richard Barancik, last of the ‘Monuments Men’ who recovered art and treasure looted by the Nazis, dies at 98
(JTA) — Richard Barancik, the last surviving member of the Allied military corps that hunted down and recovered countless artworks stolen by the Nazis, died July 14 in Chicago. He was 98.
As an Army private first class and member of what was officially known as the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) Section, and unofficially known as the “Monuments Men” (although it included a few women), Barancik was dispatched to Salzburg, Austria in 1945. He and a fellow soldier assisted in moving stolen art treasures to the central repository of the U.S. Property Control Branch and served as guards.
Although he would go on to become a prolific architect after the war, the 20-year-old Barancik volunteered for the MFAA only with training in basic engineering and a love of art.
“When I arrived in Salzburg, I was not only overwhelmed by the beauty of the town but the quality of the men in the Fine Arts Section. They were typically older and very well educated in the fine arts,” he said in an interview last year.
All told, about 350 men and women, mostly academics, art historians and other antiquities experts, served in the MFAA, mostly from the United States and Great Britain but nearly a dozen other countries as well. Between 1943 and its dissolution in 1946, the Monuments Men recovered thousands of paintings, sculptures, gold and other cultural objects in both Europe and Asia — a rescue effort that allowed Jewish survivors, the families of victims and others who had been stripped of their assets by the Nazis to recover many of them in the decades after the war.
Harry Ettlinger, right, and Dale Ford, U.S. soldiers who served in the Monuments Men, are shown in 1945 or 1946 inspecting a Rembrandt self-portrait in a salt mine where the Nazis stored stolen and hidden art. (Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration)
After the war but while still serving in the military, Barancik attended Cambridge University in England and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at Fontainebleau, France. He returned home to finish his architecture degree at the University of Illinois. The firm he founded in 1950 with a former instructor, Barancik Conte & Associates, designed private homes, office buildings, campuses and bowling alleys, and eventually became known for distinctive high-rises along Chicago’s upscale “Gold Coast.”
He retired in 1993 and split his time between Pebble Beach, California, and Chicago. He served on the boards of the Latin School of Chicago, the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, the Monterey Institute of International Studies and the Monterey Museum of Art.
In 1995, Barancik was part of a delegation of former Monuments Men who traveled to Washington, D.C., to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal. “This is a small group of people who, acting purely on their passion and courage, reclaimed the world’s most valuable treasures,” Rep. John Boehner, then Speaker of the House, said at the ceremony. “They reattached the tendons to the bone that is a civilization’s identity.”
Barancik was born in Chicago in 1924. His mother, Carrie Grawoig, was an immigrant from Russia who gave piano lessons; his father, Dr. Henry Barancik, ran a hospital division in France during World War I and was chief of staff at Jackson Park Hospital and South Chicago Hospital, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Barancik is survived by two sons, three daughters, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He was divorced once and widowed twice.
“Richard was larger than life, a true original who defied convention,” his family remembered in a tribute. “He had an impeccable eye for art and design, no matter if it was high or low. He knew what he loved… and surrounded himself with those things, whether they were paintings, ship models or miniatures.”
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.