Belgian archaeologist Marcel Emile Désiré Amand was born in Sohier, Belgium, in 1917.

Lieutenant Amand served as a Belgian restitution officer in the British Zone of Occupation. As part of his duties, Amand investigated suspected dealers of stolen works of art, retracing their movements during the war and discovering many Belgian-owned objects hidden in repositories throughout the British Zone. He made trips to the various collecting points and identified and recovered Belgian-owned works of art from the US Zone of Occupation as well.

Following his return to Belgium, Amand resumed his career as an archaeologist. Some of his most notable excavations occurred in Tournai, Belgium, where the ravages of war had unearthed previously unknown sites dating back to ancient Rome. Amand worked as the assistant of noted archaeologist and historian Paul Rolland of the Académie royale d’archéologie de Belgique during his excavations of the city. The history of Tournai remained a lifelong fascination for Amand, evidenced by his many publications on the subject, including Tournai clef du Royaume (1961) and Tournai, de César à Clovis (1972). Other projects include the discovery of a twelfth-century structure under Jardin de l’Évêché in Limoges, France, and a dig under the nave of the Eglise Saint-Piat in Tournai, where the installation of a heating pipe revealed an ancient Roman site.

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