They Saved The Art!

  When I took French back in high school, I remember the teaching stating that the people of France hid the art from the Louvre through World War II so Germany could not appropriate it as they did the art from the Jews and others.

Imagine, a nation worked together to hide precious art work from invaders for several years to preserve their heritage.  The struggle began in 1938, when the French government realized they were facing the possibility of being overrun.

So beginning in 1938, workers of the Louvre prepared paintings, and sculptures before sending them out to chateaux and other places in the countryside.  They chose nondescript locations that the Germans would never think to look.

In 1939, just a few days before the Germans invaded, the Mona Lisa left the Louvre for a safe place.  It would be moved five times during the war to keep it safe but they did it.  In fact, when France and Britain declared war on September 3, 1939, the workers made a concerted effort to remove all remaining major artworks so as to protect them.

Jacques Jaujard took it upon himself to prepare the art to leave the Louvre.  He closed the museum for three days so necessary repairs could be done but in reality, he, his staff, students, and others worked round the clock to pack up all the public art after they classified the art as most valuable art, major works, and world treasures. 

One of the workers secretly recorded every painting confiscated from private citizens so that when the war ended these records were used to repatriate over 45,000 paintings from the Germans. Throughout the war, he kept track of all the artwork, even going to far as to smuggle heaters as needed to help preserve everything.

They packed up over 3,600 paintings, multiple sculptures, and other pieces of artwork, dispatching them in 37 convoys across the countryside. One convoy had 203 trucks carrying over 1800 pieces alone.  These convoy's traveled roads packed with refugees escaping Paris.  Although these pieces of art were protected from the Germans, they decided the Louvre should be reopened one year later in September of 1940 to maintain the normalcy of the city.

Unfortunately, when the Louvre reopened, the Germans slowly filled the museum with art they confiscated from the conquered before sending it on to Germany. Many wings were closed due to a lack of art while at least one other wing housed art that only the Germans could view.  The head of the museum and his workers were unable to do anything to save that art at this time.

In addition to keeping the art safe from the Nazi, he had to fight the Vichy French government who wanted to turn all the art over to the German Government.  Throughout the war he managed to keep that from happening.  Once the war ended, the French Government had to repair the Louvre, get the paintings back and by 1947, the museum reopened with every one of the pieces of art that had been shipped out in 1939.

It is so impressive that the people of France banded together to save these pieces of art for future generations.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.