Richard Barancik, the last surviving member of the Allied unit often known as the Monuments Men and Women, which throughout and after World War II preserved an enormous quantity of European artworks and cultural treasures that had been looted and hidden by Nazi Germany, died on July 14 in Chicago. He was 98.
His loss of life, in a hospital, was confirmed by his daughter Jill Barancik.
Mr. Barancik (pronounced ba-RAN-sick) was one of 4 members of what was formally known as the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section to obtain the Congressional Gold Medal in 2015 in Washington for his or her “heroic role in the preservation, protection, restitution of monuments, works of art and artifacts of cultural importance.”
On the day of the ceremony, Mr. Barancik advised The Los Angeles Times: “The Americans cared about the cultural traditions of Europe. We did everything we could to salvage what the Nazis had done. It’s the best we could do.”
An Army personal first-class, Mr. Barancik served in England and France — the place he was not on the entrance traces, his daughter stated, and loved the marching, meals and construction of navy life — till Germany surrendered. After being deployed to Salzburg, Austria, he volunteered for the Monuments Men serving for 3 months as a driver and guard.
The Monuments Men and Women have been composed of about 350 folks — amongst them museum administrators, curators, students, historians and artists — whose missions included steering Allied bombers away from cultural targets in Europe; overseeing repairs when damages occurred; and monitoring down hundreds of thousands of objects plundered by the Nazis and returning them to the establishments, and the international locations, they got here from.
Mr. Barancik, who later grew to become an architect, had an curiosity in artwork. He had drawn cartoons for his highschool newspaper and located it thrilling to see church buildings and different buildings in Europe. But as a Monuments Man, he most likely didn’t see many of the work, sculptures and different artifacts he was guarding and transporting to an Allied assortment level; they have been in crates.
“Someone might have said, ‘There’s a Vermeer in there,’ and he knew the art was important or valuable,” stated Robert Edsel, the founder and chairman of the Monuments Men and Women Foundation, who interviewed Mr. Barancik and 20 different survivors of the unit for his ebook “The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History” (2009, with Bret Witter). The ebook was tailored into the 2014 film “The Monuments Men,” which George Clooney directed and starred in.
Mr. Edsel stated that Mr. Barancik was cautious throughout their two interviews, stunned at the curiosity in a short-term Monuments Man who, in contrast to his extra skilled colleagues, didn’t have a creative specialty.
“He seemed more curious about me being able to put into perspective what he had done, as if he didn’t realize where he fit into the overall picture,” Mr. Edsel stated by telephone.
Ms. Barancik stated that her father “was very embarrassed at the attention” he acquired for being given the Congressional Gold Medal.
“He didn’t feel like a hero,” she stated by telephone. “He said, ‘I was a kid, I was there for three months. It’s wrong for me to take credit.’ But I’d tell him, ‘You were a witness, you’re representing the people who aren’t with us anymore.’”
Mr. Edsel recalled that after the ceremony, Mr. Barancik advised him, “I’m so deeply appreciative of what you and the foundation have done, and it’s an honor beyond my ability to express it.”
Richard Morton Barancik was born on Oct. 19, 1924, in Chicago. His father, Henry, was a household doctor and served as the chief of workers at South Shore Hospital; his mom, Carrie (Grawoig) Barancik, was a homemaker and performed piano for ballet courses.
After his time as a Monuments Man, Mr. Barancik remained in Europe to check structure at the University of Cambridge, in England and the École des Beaux-Arts, in Paris. On returning to the United States, he entered the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and graduated with a bachelor’s diploma in structure in the late 1940s.
In 1950 he opened an architectural agency, Barancik, Conte & Associates, with one of his design instructors at the University of Illinois. The firm designed personal properties, workplace towers, suburban workplace complexes, bowling alleys, colleges and luxurious house buildings.
“I really practice architecture seven days a week, all my waking hours,” he advised The Chicago Tribune in 1986. “It’s an all-consuming profession.” He retired in 1993.
In addition to his daughter Jill, Mr. Barancik is survived by two different daughters, Cathy Graham and Ellie Barancik; two sons, Robert and Michael; 4 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. His marriage to Rema Stone resulted in divorce, and his marriages to Claire Holland and Suzanne Hammerman ended of their deaths.
One of the advantages of the consideration that got here to Mr. Barancik as a Monuments Man was the correspondence he acquired.
“He’d get fan mail and, once a week, an autograph request,” Ms. Barancik stated. “He’d get sensitive letters from people, lots of them from schoolchildren, which kept the conversation going.”