Dallas' Robert Edsel, now famous for paying homage to the folks who tracked down millions of artistic and cultural art items stolen by Hitler and the Nazis, is profiled this morning in The Wall Street Journal -- though I almost stopped reading right about here: "In a trice he's yarning away with compulsive zeal, though he has no doubt told it umpteen times before." The piece does answer one question I've always had about Edsel's zealous pursuit of history's missing pieces: How has he paid for all this?

"I had to sell some paintings, and at one point I almost put my house in Dallas on the market. Just my traveling costs might reach $70,000 a month. But we have come a long way. I will be doing more books, a movie from selected real-life stories, and traveling exhibitions."

In other words, developing. --Robert Wilonsky

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