Amid the turmoil and destruction of World War II, the importance of art was frequently overlooked. Hitler, who once aspired to be an artist but failed, aimed to conquer vast territories and amass Europe’s cultural treasures during the war. His plan was to display these treasures in a grand museum in Linz, Austria, post-war.
As the conflict intensified, it became essential to hide artworks, jewels, and gold to protect them from being damaged or seized by German forces. These items were often concealed in unexpected places, while those looted by the Nazis were also meticulously hidden. Here are ten distinctive methods used by both sides to protect art and valuables during the war.
10. A Welsh Quarry
When war was declared against Nazi Germany, Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the National Gallery’s treasures to be relocated to underground shelters to protect them from bombings. Contrary to expectations, about 2,000 masterpieces were not stored in subterranean vaults but in a slate quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales.
Typically used for slate extraction, the quarry was adapted with air-conditioned studios to house the artworks. Military personnel were stationed nearby to secure the area, and art conservators were available to maintain the pieces. This collection included works by eminent European artists such as Titian, Michelangelo, and John Constable. The plan was effective, and the artworks were safely returned to London after the war.
9. An Austrian Salt Mine
The British weren’t the only ones who protected their valuable paintings in underground locations; the Nazis did the same by moving approximately 6,500 artworks to an Austrian salt mine. These pieces were to be preserved only if Germany won the war, as Hitler had ordered their destruction otherwise as an act of defiance.
This would have resulted in a devastating loss for European culture. The collection included works by notable artists such as Michelangelo, Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Rubens. Fortunately, mine workers and possibly a supervising Nazi official recognized the importance of these artworks and opposed their destruction.
The explosives set in the mine were replaced with less powerful ones that merely sealed the entrance. The stable environment inside preserved the paintings well until they were recovered by Allied forces after the war.
8. A London Tube Station
The Elgin Marbles, also known as the Parthenon Sculptures, are famous and contentious artifacts located in Britain. They were brought to Britain by Lord Elgin, an art-loving ambassador, in the early 19th century. He argued that the sculptures would be better protected in Britain than in Athens, which was under Ottoman control at the time. They have remained safe since then. However, the greatest threat to the sculptures came almost twenty years after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, during the German bombing raids on England that began in September 1940.
To protect its collection, including the Elgin Marbles, the British Museum had to find a secure location. Due to their size and weight, the Marbles could not be moved to a remote Welsh mine like the paintings from the National Gallery. Instead, they were transported on wooden carts to the Aldwych London Underground station. This station had an unused platform that had previously been used for storage during World War I. The Marbles were safely stored there until 1948, despite the British Museum itself suffering bomb damage. It was later revealed that Aldwych station would not have survived a direct hit, underscoring the fragility of their wartime safety measures.
7. A Biscuit Tin
The British were resolute in ensuring the crown jewels remained out of Hitler’s grasp, recognizing their immense significance. To prepare for a potential Nazi invasion, King George VI—not Churchill—ordered a secret operation to hide these treasures. His plan involved creating two reinforced concrete chambers with steel doors, concealed within a deep pit at Windsor Castle. To prevent detection by enemy aircraft, the excavation site was covered with tarpaulin.
Once the chambers were ready, some of the most valuable gems from the Imperial State Crown were placed in a biscuit tin for added security before being buried.
The jewels were eventually recovered after the war, but the secrecy of the operation was maintained until those involved had passed away. Queen Elizabeth II only discovered the details when letters describing the plan were found during research for a 2018 documentary.
6. An Ambulance
Despite Germany’s invasion of France in 1940, the country managed to protect much of its cultural heritage from Nazi control. This success was largely due to Jacques Jaujard, the director of France’s National Museums, who foresaw the threat following Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938.
Jaujard, in collaboration with Louvre curator René Huyghe, planned to move the museum’s treasures to secure locations in the French countryside, such as castles and abbeys.
In August 1939, Jaujard temporarily closed the Louvre under the pretense of maintenance to discreetly pack and transport as many artifacts as possible. The Mona Lisa was transported in a custom, double-layered velvet-lined case so airtight that it nearly suffocated the official accompanying it during its journey by ambulance.
5. A Norwegian Forest
In 1940, Norway came under Nazi occupation. Edvard Munch, the nation’s most renowned artist, known for his famous painting “The Scream,” had some of his early works and other pieces hidden in a remote forest during the war. Unlike other artists whose works were prized by the Nazis for propaganda, Munch’s art was labeled “degenerate” and banned from display. The “degenerate art” exhibition in Munich in 1937 had shown that any confiscated pieces by Munch would likely be destroyed.
Anticipating the conflict, Thomas Olsen, a shipping magnate who had purchased Munch’s paintings at an auction in 1933 from a Jewish owner fleeing Germany, moved his collection to a secluded barn in the Norwegian wilderness when Britain declared war on Germany in 1939. This precaution proved to be wise. Although Olsen died in 1969, his family later sold their version of “The Scream” for an impressive $119.9 million in 2012.
4. An Abandoned Jail Cell
Despite the alliance between the Nazis and Italy during World War II, the Nazis continued to plunder Italian art, often under the pretense of protecting it from the war. In reality, they were hoarding these masterpieces for themselves. This happened in Florence, a city relatively unaffected by the war in 1944, where German officers deceived the local gallery director into believing the collections were in danger. During the supposed relocation to safer locations, several paintings mysteriously disappeared.
While some of Italy’s stolen art was discovered in an Austrian salt mine by the Monuments Men in 1945, the missing Florentine pieces were not among them. However, following Germany’s surrender, an Italian gallery director informed the Monuments Men about a hidden trove of art in San Leonardo, a village in the Italian Alps. This concealed collection, found in an abandoned jail cell, was valued at approximately $500 million at the time, a sum that would equate to several billion dollars today when adjusted for inflation.
3. In Bread Packages
Not all treasures hidden by the Nazis during World War II were recovered by the Monuments Men. Some remained so well-concealed that they have yet to be found or may have been secretly retrieved. A notable example is a collection of coins, gemstones, and jewelry believed to be buried in the Dutch village of Ommeren. This treasure, valued at millions, was looted from a bank in Arnhem by German soldiers in 1944.
As Allied forces approached, the soldiers hurriedly packed the loot into ammunition boxes and bread packages, then buried it under a tree for later recovery. Despite the availability of a map, drawn by a Nazi soldier, indicating the treasure’s location, numerous official and amateur searches have failed to locate it. Experts now suspect that while treasure was indeed buried in Ommeren, it has since been removed.
2. Dissolved into Liquid
Hitler was indifferent to the origins of the gold and valuables brought into Germany. However, exporting gold from Germany was illegal and punishable by death. Despite this, individuals such as Nobel laureates Max von Laue and James Franck tried to smuggle their gold Nobel medals out of the country. Franck, who was Jewish, and von Laue, who sympathized with the Jewish cause, sent their medals to physicist Niels Bohr in Copenhagen to protect them from Nazi persecution.
When the Nazis invaded Denmark in 1940, the medals were at risk of being discovered, which could endanger the scientists. To safeguard the medals, George de Hevesy, a colleague of Bohr’s, dissolved them in aqua regia, a strong acid solution, turning them into an orange liquid. This solution was left on a shelf in de Hevesy’s laboratory until after the war. De Hevesy later recovered the gold from the solution and sent it to Stockholm, where it was recast into new Nobel medals.
1. Behind Juice Cartons and Tinned Food
Some artworks stolen by the Nazis remain missing, but there’s a possibility they could be found in the future, as has happened before. For instance, in 2011, 66 years after World War II ended, a cache of 1,500 looted artworks was discovered in an unremarkable apartment in Munich, belonging to an 80-year-old recluse named Rolf Gurlitt. This collection, estimated to be worth up to one billion euros, included pieces by famous artists such as Picasso, Matisse, and Munch.
Gurlitt had inherited these artworks from his father, a German art dealer who had acquired many “degenerate” art pieces confiscated by the Nazis. After the war, Gurlitt misled authorities by claiming his collection had been destroyed during the Dresden bombings.
The artworks were hidden in the apartment, stacked on top of each other and obscured by numerous juice cartons and expired food cans. Gurlitt lived a reclusive life, avoiding financial institutions and neglecting to pay taxes. Ironically, it was his tax evasion that eventually led to the discovery of the collection. Despite the moral imperative to return the stolen art to its rightful owners, there was no legal requirement for Gurlitt to do so.