Mona Lisa's War
Château de Chambord
Hitler’s invasion of Europe gave him, Goering, Goebbels, Ribbentrop et al Carte Blanche to plunder priceless works of art.
On 25 August 1939 the Louvre in Paris closed its doors for three days to crate up its collection. It was so secret, the government was not told.
On 28 August 1939 Mona Lisa left the Louvre heading south. Destination Château Chambord which closed to the public when war was declared. This was the main repository for over five thousand crates filled with national treasures from Paris museums.
Château de Chambord storage area.
Francis I would have breathed a sigh of relief. Not only was Chambord his pride and joy, not only did his art collection form the foundation of the Louvre, it was he who bought the Mona Lisa for France. She was on show to the public for three years in Leonardo da Vinci’s Amboise studio fifty miles from Chambord so was on home ground.
When the Germans began bombing towns along the Loire, Mona Lisa was taken back north to Château Louvigny in Normandy in a hermetically sealed ambulance. After a three hour journey, the unlucky curator assigned to her was nearly unconscious from lack of oxygen when he arrived.
By 1940, Louvigny was not safe so on 5 June 1940 Lisa went south again to the Abbey of Loc-Dieu, five hundred miles away.
Built on a swamp, humidity began to wreak havoc so three months later she was moved further south to the Ingres Museum in Montauban.
Safe at last? No. In November 1942 the Germans invaded the so called free zone. The whole of France was occupied. Mona Lisa now had enemies on two fronts, within and without. Vichy France collaborationist leaders planned to hand her over to the Germans.
13 march 1943 Mona Lisa was her way north again. This time to Château Montal ninety miles away where she stayed hidden until she returned home safe and sound.
On 16 June 1945 Mona Lisa was back in the Louvre.
On that very same day, SOE (Special Operations Executive) agent Albrecht Gaiswinkler discovered a Mona Lisa among Hitler’s hoard of stolen works of art in the Altaussee Salt Mine in the Austrian Alps.
Hitler requisitioned the Mine for his personal use. Crate after crate arrived with AH stamped on them. The horizontal mine, impregnable to aerial bombardment even if bombers could locate it in the vast mountain range, was the nearest safe place to Linz where Hitler planned to build a vast Fuhrer Museum complex to display his spoils of war.
Gaiswinkler and three other SOE agents had managed to stop the Germans from blowing up the mine which would have destroyed thousands of priceless works of art looted from all over Europe.
Asked to comment on the find, the Louvre said Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa had never left France. The portrait in the mine was a 16th or 17th century copy. The fact that there are many excellent copies is not in dispute. Many were made by Leonardo's pupils. Raphael copied it in Leonardo’s studio in Florence. One copy is in the Prado, Madrid. Another is known as The Isleworth Mona Lisa.
The copy from the mine was taken to National Recovery Museum in Paris with two thousand works of art whose owners could not be traced. After five years, with no-one claiming the copy, it was taken to the Louvre to be stored.
Where had it come from? How did Hitler acquire it? Why did the original owner not look for it (unless he/she was dead)?
Did Mona Lisa perhaps never leave Paris? Was she hidden where even the Germans could not find her? Did the Louvre send the copy on its journey around France? All very mysterious. No wonder Mona Lisa is smiling.
The millions who queue to see her in the Louvre every day can rest assured they are looking at the real McCoy. No painting in the world has had so many experts and scientists poring over it.
Post by Pamela (BA History of Art). Photography by Mark.
Leonardo da Vinci
The Amboise Connection
