James Rorimer graduated from Harvard and started working the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1927 (Monuments). He went on to become a curator at the Met and one of the premier museum directors of the 20th century (Monuments). Exposure to great public collections started at a young age with his trips to Europe. His love for art grew and he eventually went on to publish scholarly work on using ultraviolent rays to examine works of art (Monuments). In 1943, Rorimer was drafted in the US army and became one of the first Monuments Men in the field. James began personally investigating the “looting of private French collections by the ERR” (Monuments).
The Monuments Men. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2016, from http://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/the-heroes/the-monuments-men/