At the Stedelijk there was
a section showing how the museum kept their art safe during the Second World War. They built a bunker in the dunes by the sea where they hid priceless art from the Nazis, and implemented a system of marking the back of paintings, according to how important they were. These three paintings were hung back to front to show the different coloured dots (sadly I can't remember which of three colours was deemed "irreplaceable") - don't they look great?! I might blow one of these up big, so I can hang one on our wall...
Very interesting to see what is usually hidden!!
ReplyDelete4 or 5 years ago, there was an exhibition in my area, at the Chateau de Chambord that showed how the French state had protected and hidden paintings and sculptures during the WW2. A part of Parisian museums arts had been hidden in this castle of Chambord. The most precious painting, the Mona Lisa was there. On the wooden case of this one, you could just see three red dots (no mention or text). These 3 red dots meant: it's Mona Lisa! The other paintings had only 1 or 2 red points!
Oh gosh, can't believe it's taken me almost a month to reply to your comment!!
DeleteThat's so fascinating! It's so amazing to hear the stories behind the scenes; one doesn't really think about all the effort that has gone into keeping these invaluable artworks safe. Encroyable!