At first, many pieces were thought to be too fragile to move. Pastel paintings by Boucher and Degas found their way to the vaults of the Banque de France. Winged Victory, Venus, Diane de Versailles, and Michel-Ange’s Slaves stayed in the Louvre under arches and piled with sandbags.
At the start of September, the Germans moved into Poland and the workers were told to move faster. This time the Wedding Feast of Cana needed to be removed. Taken out of its frame and off its backing the immense canvas was rolled onto a large oak log, longer than the 20-foot tall painting. David’s Sacre was rolled once more but the huge paintings wouldn’t fit in any of the trucks they had on hand. The Comedie Francaise came to the rescue with the large scenery moving trucks.
The next issue was Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa. Theodore Gericault used Bitumen, the tarry substance added to paint to deepen dark colors but since it never fully dries Huyghé was worried the painting would be ruined if rolled. The painting was left on its stretcher, carried out of the Louvre, and placed on a truck along with a few other large works. Slowly making its way through the streets a large pole was used to lift wires so the paintings could easily move through.
Once the caravan reached Versailles they forgot the trolley lines that are fixed in place. As the painting slid through a loud crack was heard and sparks flew the truck was moved sideways and the electricity to the entire city was cut causing many to panic that the Germans had arrived. Magdeleine Hours, a curator at the Louvre rushed to the Chateau and banged on the door until a pajama-clad curator found the door in the dark. The Raft and the other pieces were left at Versailles for a few days before they checked the rest of the route.
On September 1, 1939, World War II began and the rest of the art that was deemed too fragile in the Louvre needed to be better protected.
The most precious and beautiful, Winged Victory of Samothrace stands at the top of the Daru staircase. Her 9-foot figure that ways 3 and a half tons was the biggest challenge. On September 2 she was tied up inside an open crate with a system of pulleys, chains, and ropes and was slowly lowered down the 53 steps covered with a few boards as everyone stood by holding their breath. That same day 95 trucks of 120 crates left but Victory, Venus, and the Slaves remained.
On September 3, 1939, England delivered an order to Hitler to stop and leave Poland within two hours. At 5 pm France declared war on Germany. 90% of the Louvre was empty by September 3 and things quickly stopped. Officials were worried the Germans would be on the cobblestones of Paris in days but by the 6th when nothing had happened the project was resumed and convoys continued to move. Jaujard decided at the end of the month that the remaining art wasn’t safe and also needed to be removed.
It took until the end of October on the 29th when Victory, Venus, and the Slaves left in a convoy of 29 trucks to the Chateau de Valencay in the Loire. Delacroix’s ceiling in the Gallerie d’Apollon was rolled and just behind Victory on its way to safety.
In just over 5 weeks, 2000 crates in more than 200 truckloads left the Louvre filled with 3,691 paintings and thousands of objets, furniture, and sculptures from not only the Louvre but the Cluny and Carnavalet as well as some high-value personal collections given to the Louvre for safekeeping. 599 crates from Versailles, 1400 from the Musée des Arts Decoartifs, and 6000 crates of private collections.
The Chateau de Chambord dates back to 1519 when Francois I wanted a hunting lodge on the edge of the forest. He intended to live there but in the end, he only spent 42 days in 35 years. The immense size, the largest in the Loire would play a key role in the evacuation of the Louvre. As the art left the Louvre, all convoys stopped at Chambord to be inventoried and then transferred to their final destination.
Chambord did have its drawbacks due to its size. It was very visible from above and its double staircase designed by Leonardo da Vinci made it very difficult to move crates of art. The doorways were also quite low and many were damaged in the process. The Apollo ceiling by Delacroix remained as well as the depart of drawing collection and the prints given by Edmond de Rothschild. Archivist Lucie Mazauric came along with the thousands of books and files in the archive collection, many of which I benefit from today.
In the Musée de l’Armée are models of French cities, many created under Louis XIV. These also found their way to protection in Chambord.
Other chateaus include Fougères-sur-Bievre, Chevrnay, Valencay, Louvigny, Courtalain, Chereperrine, Le Pelice, and Ailleres. Everything was thought out in the process. Curators and guards traveled with the caravan. When the first convoy rolled through the small towns the tarped-covered trucks got lots of looks. Many thought the circus was coming to town, little did they know it was the Winged Victory flying through.
The painting department consisted of 3,691 pieces and had to be split out into multiple locations. They needed to be near each other so curators and restorers could travel quickly as they worked. At the Abbaye de La Pelice and the Chateau de Louvigny the majority of paintings were hidden away. Louvigny also had the other large framed paintings. The Chateau de Chèreperrine held the large rolled paintings including the Sacre de Napoleon, Wedding Feast of Cana and Gros’ Napoleon in Jaffa.
The Raft of the Medusa had to stay in Versailles a bit longer until they were sure it could make the trip safely to Chambord. On the back of an open scenery truck, it garnered attention wherever it went. While the other trucks in the convoy traveled to Chambord they did it in the dark without the use of lights. Upon arriving at the chateau they realized a truck was missing filled with Watteau paintings. They found it the next morning as the sun came up on the banks of the river Loire. The driver mistook the lights on a bicycle for another truck.
When the Mona Lisa was packed she was wrapped in special paper to absorb any humidity and then set in a red silk-lined box. When she left Paris she left in a hermetically sealed truck. When she arrived in Chambord, National Museum officer Pierre Schommer was passed out due to a lack of air but was thankfully revived. She moved on to the Chateau de Louvigny along with curator Andre Chamsen. Chamsen was the assistant curator at Versaille just before the war began. Born on June 6, 1900, in Nimes he began his job at the Louvre just weeks before the war was a whisper.
Chamsen met Lucie Mazauric and the two married on July 26, 1924. When the art moved so did they along with their daughter Frederique. As an archivist, her collection and job were just as important as the art that hung on the walls and what they held in their armoire the most important piece in the Louvre collection.
In the Petit Salon of the Chateau de Louvigny, La Jaconde was hidden away and brought out every week to check for any moisture. Daughter Frederique said in the amazing documentary and started me on my own journey, the Rape of Europa that she remembered her father opening it and pulling back the red silk.
As the war raged on, the locations of the art hung in the balance, and decisions along the way had to be made. In the spring of 1940, the Germans closed in getting closer and closer. On May 16, 1940, a large plume of smoke could be seen from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the Quai d’Orsay as they tossed archives out the window into a burning pile to destroy before the Germans arrived. Jaujard knew the art wasn’t safe and needed to be moved. The isolated Abbaye de Loc-Dieu was chosen as it was 80 miles NE of Toulouse and farther into the country. The threat of being seen moving was far greater than the first time. There also was fewer staff, trucks, fuel, and time to make the move.
Four paintings were excluded from the move. The Wedding Feast of Cana, Sacre de Napoleon, Napoleon visiting Jaffa, and the Battle of Eylau. It was thought that three paintings depicting Napoleon and the Wedding Feast, being the one he stole may have a high value to Hitler and the Germans. The one place Hitler had to visit on his one day in Paris was the tomb of Napoleon.
On May 29, 1940, Jaujaurd and Germain Bazin, assistant curators of paintings built a timeline for the movement of all the art. A few curators refused to be a part of it as it was sure to be a dangerous undertaking. Once the movement began it took three days due to the crowded and horrible roads, but everything moved in time.
During the next 5 years much of the art would move three times before it finally returned to Paris. The Mona Lisa moved six times with her caretaker and family moving right along with her. At each location, she had her own room and guards
On December 26, 1944, the last German bomb was dropped on France, but the art stayed put. On April 30, 1945, Hitler killed himself and a week later on May 7, the Germans surrendered to the Allies.
Now a new obstacle was in the way for curators. The cold and lack of coal in Paris made it almost impossible to heat the large galleries. The cold and rising temperatures from visitors would cause humidity which is one of the worst enemies of the art.
On June 15, 1945, at 5 am the first convoy of art left the Chateau de Montal. Two hours later all 3 and a half tons of Winged Victory left for Paris on a truck provided by the British army. It took 9 hours to go the 150 miles back to Paris.
The next day Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People as well as Boucher and Watteau paintings. At the time of the war, there was not a Musée d’Orsay. The collection you see in the Orsay today was once in the Louvre. Along with the French and Italian masters the evacuation of the Louvre also included van Gogh, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, and all the Impressionists.
On June 21, Winged Victory was back at the base of the Daru Staircase. The entire staff of the Louvre stood by to watch her make the slow push up the steps that would take over two hours. Of course, they stopped to have lunch for 90 minutes before they completed her move and she was once again sitting on top of her ship.
On June 30, Venus and Michel Ange’s Slaves returned. It had been 6 years since they had last seen the inside of the Louvre. In the following weeks the rest of the art, antiquities, crown jewels, furniture, and more made their return to Paris. Since the Louvre wasn’t ready yet they held a special exhibition in the smaller rooms off of Winged Victory beginning on July 10, 1945, where 83 paintings including the Mona Lisa could finally be seen again.
While the art was gone, curators worked to restore and conserve many of the most important pieces, although the Mona Lisa was never touched.
The larger paintings didn’t return until February 1946 and the Belle Allemande came into the Louvre collection after Gorring had “traded” for her. Today she is down on the ground level in a side room just off the Cour Leuffel without a mention of her travels
One of the last pieces to return was the one that made the greatest exit. Gericault’s Raft of the Medus which had such a sparkling start finally returned on July 9, 1946, from the Chateau de Sourches with 8 other large paintings.
On October 17, 1947, after 8 years the Louvre was finally fully open to the public.
While it was closed a new strategy for hanging the art was also worked out. Before the war, the paintings were much closer to each other and on top of each other. Now after the remaining workers that stayed behind inventoried the frames and the chalk marks on the wall a new more spacious layout we see today was planned.