After 70 years in near obscurity, the men and women who worked to preserve cultural artifacts during World War II, nicknamed the “Monuments Men,” will be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Robert Menendez (N.J.) introduced the bill that was passed with bipartisan support in the House and Senate Tuesday.

The Monuments Men were a group of 350 men and women from 13 countries who were unlikely heroes on the frontlines of World War II. Art history scholars, museum directors, artists, architects and archivists – their task was to save art, artifacts, monuments and architecture from destruction at the hands of Hitler and the Nazis.

During the last year of the war, and during the post-war years, they recovered more than 5 million artistic and cultural treasures stolen by the Nazis, according to the Monuments Men Foundation web site.

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