Robert M. Edsel, a businessman and best-selling author, was born in Oak Park, Illinois, and raised in Dallas, Texas. In 1981, he began his business career in oil and gas exploration; his company, Gemini Exploration, pioneered the use of horizontal drilling. Edsel sold the company in 1996 and moved to Europe with his family.
While living in Florence, he began to think about the methods and planning used to keep art out of the hands of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Edsel moved to New York City in 2000 where he began a serious effort to learn about and understand the issue. Those efforts had become a full-time career by 2004 and he established a research office in Dallas. By 2005, he had gathered thousands of photographs and other documents.
In 2007 he founded the Monuments Men and Women Foundation for the Preservation of Art. Robert Edsel has written six non-fiction books; a film based on his most famous book, The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, directed by and starring George Clooney was released in February 2014. His most recent book is Remember Us: American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and a Forever Promise Forged in World War II.