On August 25, 1939, Hitler came knocking on the door of France and the keepers of the great art of Paris sprang into action. Jacques Jaujard the director of France’s National Museum and René Huyghé, saved the art of the Louvre and had it planned for over a year. This is the evacuation that many have heard about but it wasn’t the first.
In July 1830, the famous Revolution captured by Eugene Delacroix put the Louvre in its first spot of trouble. The Louvre opened in 1793 in the midst of the Revolution and survived unscathed since it was given to the people. On those three Glorious Days in July 1830 Vicomte de Cailleux, a 93-year-old security guard began to remove the paintings from the walls of the Grande Gallerie that hung floor to ceiling. Working through the night it took dozens of people on tall ladders to move them away from the wall of the Seine.
Cailleux created a quick sign “Respect the National Property”. As the rioters entered and fired their way through door locks they didn’t touch a thing. Five months later on December 21 they pushed their way in again but left the Louvre as it was. In February 1848, as the next king woke the Revolutionists again a sign was again placed at the entrance and the Louvre was bypassed.
In 1870, the Louvre came the closest to disaster. On July 18, Napoleon III declares war on Prussia. As troops moved closer to Paris the first evacuation of the Louvre and what would lay the path for the future began. On August 30, 1870, they quickly worked for 4 days to pack the most precious of pieces away and send them to a military fortification in Brest. On September 1 the Mona Lisa and Wedding Feast of Cana left the Louvre. Over the next two weeks 123 crates of paintings, sculptures, and objets d’art would join them.
On January 6, 1871, the Venus de Milo was moved to a nearby Prefecture and hidden behind a brick wall and covered with sandbags. The Prefecture was destroyed but Venus survived without a scratch. A month later after a treaty was signed the end was in sight, or so they thought. In the coming months, it was the Revolution within the country again and one that would destroy many of the historic buildings of Paris.
In May for two straight days in 1871, the Palais des Tuileries burned. Flames ravaged through each historic wall, painting, and piece of furniture. Connected to what we now know as the Musée du Louvre, flames threatened to travel through the Grand Gallery and the national art collection. However, there was a group of men that would do all they could to save what we now hold so dear. Henri Babet de Jouy was a curator of the national museum and would later become curator of the Louvre. While buckets of oil were thrown on from the Pavillon de Flore to the Pavillon de Marsan and the entire Palais des Tuileries in between. Jouy with the help of Antoine Heron de Villefosse, curator of antiquities, and administrator Leon Morand on the days and nights of 23 & 24 of May 1871 did all they could to save the collections.
The Louvre curators were aided by the other real hero of the moment. Martian de Bernardy de Sigoyer was the commander of the 26th Battaillon de Chasseurs à Pied and was called to the Tuileries the night of the 24 May. As the flames grew closer, he ordered his men to do everything they could to save the Louvre and the art it held. Using any weapon they had they began to break down doors and windows and even the roof to cut holes for the flames to escape. With his men, he would save the Louvre but his own life would be lost that night.
Today a plaque is on the wall above the stairs that lead to the Daru Gallery that commemorates these great men. Jouy is buried in the Pére Lachaise and with Sigoyer they will forever be known as the saviors of the Louvre. Most people walk right past and never even notice or know their story.
The next challenge would come in 1914. On August 1 a few weeks after the start of World War I items in the Louvre were moved yet again. In the afternoon of August 24 the Germans began to advance and by noon the next day, August 25 which would be a significant day 25 years later the curators were told to quickly bring down the art. In those days the art was attached to hooks in order for a quick exit. Three days later they were told to pick up the pace. Large paintings like David’s Sacre de Napoleon were removed from the frames and rolled onto large cylinders. Along with Venus many of the treasures were put on a train in the dark of night and sent to Toulouse. The largest painting in the Louvre, Vernonese’s Wedding Feast of Cana remained and a faux wall was created to cover it.
Wooden crates became scares and worried curators packed the paintings directly onto the back of trucks and covered them with a tarp. 720 paintings were removed along with a handful of objets d’art and sculptures. Over the next four years, more and more art was evacuated but the Louvre remained open to the public, although only a few rooms were in the Denon wing. At the end of November 1918, five weeks after the war the art slowly returned to Paris and by mid-February 1919 the Louvre was back to normal, although only for the next twenty years.
The end of the War to End All Wars also had the curators and museum officials on edge and began to compose a plan if this was ever to happen again. Members of the National Museum including Deputy Director Jaques Jaujard looked at the worst-case scenario, a full evacuation of the museums of Paris.
Jacques Jaujard was born on December 3, 1985, and served in WWI for one year before he had to leave the war due to Tuberculose. After the war, he became a journalist and then a secretary to Paul Painlevé and eventually to the Ministry of War which got him the attention of the National Museum in 1925.
In 1938 the Spanish Civil War raged in Madrid, and the Prado Museum and a committee of high-ranking and notable officials asked Jaujard to assist with saving their art. Seventy-one trucks packed with crates of the Prado collection traveled to Switzerland for safekeeping. It was the perfect trial run that Jaujard didn’t know he would need.
In August 1938, the Musee Nationaux leased two very large vaults at the Banque de France headquarters and began to look at what other places in France they could utilize to hold art. A few chateaux were owned by the State but many more would be needed. Each needed to be secluded but also close to the water in case of fire and they would shortly learn they also needed to be outside the Occupied zone.
Hitler had taken power and his plans were beginning to come to light. The frustrated artist that wasn’t allowed into art school coveted the best pieces in Europe. He brought in all the best art experts who amassed large books filled with pages of art by country on what he should take. A few of these books remain and his path through Europe can be traced through each page.
On September 22 Hitler took Sudetenland and the plan was moved to the top of the pile. On Monday, September 26, the Louvre received its official order. The next morning at 6 am several trucks left the Louvre headed to Chambord filled with the most important paintings, the crown jewels, and the Rubens Medici cycle. For the next four days, more pieces left until September 30 when the Munich Agreement was signed and everyone took a breath. The war was over, or at least they thought it was. Quickly the trucks returned to Paris. The Mona Lisa found her home again on the wall and things were calm for almost 11 months.
On August 23, 1939, Germany and Russia signed a non-aggression pact. On August 24 the museums of London closed and on August 25th the Louvre began its biggest evacuation yet.
On August 25, the Louvre was closed for “cleaning” for three days. However, what really happened on those three days would alter the plans of the dictator and his greedy looting. On those three days, the staff of the Louvre, volunteers, and students worked around the clock removing paintings from their frames, rolled and placed in crates.
Jaques Jaujard worked closely with Rene Huyghé, the curator of paintings. Huyghe was a French writer, art historian, and curator of the Musée du Louvre. Born on May 3, 1906, he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne before attending the École du Louvre. Now he may not be a household name, but he was a part of one of the greatest moments in the history of the Musée du Louvre. Named the curator of paintings in the 1930 and a professor at the Ecole du Louvre, Huyghe’s life was all about art.
On August 26 by 1 am the 50 most important paintings were in crates once again. Jaujard and Hughé needed more help and students from the Ecole du Louvre and theater employees were called in. Gabriel Cognacq, nephew of Marie-Louis Jay-Cognacq and owner of the Samaritaine also served on the national museum council and brought in all his trucks, crates and employees to assist.
Early Sunday morning on August 27 the Cour Carrée was closed after an endless stream of trucks in the dark hours arrived.
When the art was packed a system of codes and stickers was utilized. For the national collection, MN, Huyghé’s painting department LP, and antiquities LR. Red stickers were added to the top-priority pieces. Two red dots for the most important, green for the most significant, and yellow for lower significance. For the most famous of paintings, Madame Lisa was given three stickers, her own crate labeled MN. She was then strapped to a gurney and rolled into a truck labeled 2162RM2 that Jacques would then write ahead to the depot to know what to look for.
On August 28, 1939, at 6 am when all of Paris was asleep out of the Cour Carrée and onto the Quai were the first 8 trucks including the Mona Lisa, Seated Scribe, the Crown Jewels again, and 225 other crates. The entire Quai along the Louvre was lined with trucks and drivers waiting for their loads. That same day at 2 pm, six more crates left.
On August 29 the next 23 trucks left. As soon as they reached their destination they quickly returned to Paris for more precious cargo. Twice a day until September 2, two convoys a day of 9 trucks left the Louvre. Each driver puts his life in danger with each mile.