Visual Arts

The Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, based in Dallas and founded by Robert M. Edsel, is among 10 recipients of the 2007 National Medal of Humanities. They will be honored today by President Bush in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

Mr. Edsel, 50, a graduate of St. Mark's School of Texas and Southern Methodist University, founded the organization earlier this year for the purpose of tracking down hundreds of thousands of missing works of art and other cultural treasures. He is the co-producer of the documentary The Rape of Europa and wrote and self-published a book on the same subject, Rescuing Da Vinci.

"We're very, very honored," Mr. Edsel said Wednesday night. "It's an incredible recognition about the work of the Monuments Men and the efforts of our foundation to get their story out and help complete the important work they were so instrumental in getting done in World War II."

The Monuments Men at one time consisted of about 350 men and women in 13 different nations, he said. "Today, there are 12 we have found, although our search continues," he said. "These are men and women who served in the armed forces trying to protect these great works of art."

The medal "honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens' engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans' access to important resources in the humanities," according to the Web site of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Previous humanities winners include author Madeleine L'Engle, the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa and musician Don Henley.

Mr. Bush will also present the National Medal of Arts today. The recipients are:

• Morten Lauridsen, composer, Los Angeles

• N. Scott Momaday, author, Oklahoma City

• R. Craig Noel, director, San Diego

• Roy R. Neuberger, arts patron, New York

• Les Paul, guitar pioneer, New York

• Henry Steinway, arts patron, New York

• George Tooker, painter, Hartsville, Vt.

• The University of Idaho Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival, Moscow, Idaho

• Andrew Wyeth, painter, Chadds Ford, Pa.

• Erich Kunzel, conductor (2006 recipient), Naples, Fla.

The other 2007 humanities medal recipients are:

• Dr. Stephen H. Balch, scholar, Princeton, N.J.

• Russell Freedman, author, New York.

• Victor Davis Hanson, military historian and author, Fresno, Calif.

• Roger Hertog, philanthropist, New York.

• Cynthia Ozick, author, New Rochelle, N.Y.

• Richard Pipes, author and historian, Cambridge, Mass.

• Pauline L. Schultz, curator and author, Hixson, Tenn.

• Henry Leonard Snyder, scholar, Kensington, Calif.

• Ruth R. Wisse, scholar, Cambridge, Mass.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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