Saving Victory

As the threat of World War II grows along with the power of the Nazi party under Adolf Hitler, Jacques Jaujard, director of France’s national museums, must find a way to keep the world’s most valuable cultural treasures safe from plundering. The solution: a large-scale evacuation of major works from Paris’ museums, including the Louvre, to unused chateaus in the provinces. The last team of museum workers to leave had the monumental task of moving the eighteen-foot-tall Winged Victory of Samothrace from the top of the grand staircase to the back of a truck. This is their story.