On the occasion of the national anniversary of October 28th, 1940, the National Archaeological Museum (NAM) has published online a selection of valuable archival photographs documenting the concealment of antiquities during World War II. In the shadow of war and throughout the Nazi occupation the employees of the first museum of the country were assigned the task of safeguarding the archaeological treasures against destruction and looting. (Cover photo: NAM 1940-41. The Kouros statue (inv. no. 2720), dated around 600 BC, from Sounion, ready to by hidden below the floor of its exhibition room).

“The safekeeping of antiquities during the occupation and the ensuing care for the reconstitution of the National Archaeological Museum were posts of responsibility before which we stand today with respect, admiration and gratitude”, notes Dr. Maria Lagogianni-Georgakarakos, former and honorary Director of the National Archaeological Museum, in the statement accompanying the online exhibition.

The burial of marble sculptures. The hermaic stele (inv. no 385) of Sosistratos kosmetes of ephebes, the statue of Aphrodite (inv. no 3524) of Syracuse type, the statue (inv. no 1828) of a man of the early 1st century BC, from Delos, a statue of a seated woman (inv. no 380) from Rheneia, dated in the 2nd century BC, and two statues of Hermes, from Aigion (inv. no 241) and Troizen (inv. no 243) both of the Roman period and copies of classical and late classical prototypes, can be seen in the pit. (Photo NAM)

While on the Greco–Italian war front Greek heroic soldiers were accomplishing the epic feat of the «No» crying out the famous battle cry «Aera» («Air»), another catchphrase sounded in the spaces of the museum. «Fire up» was one of the commands given by the sculptor Andreas Panagiotakis when the craftsmen pulled with chains and ropes the marble statues in order to place them in large pits they had opened in the north wing.

In April 1941 the museum looked deserted. Sculptures, bronze and clay artworks had been packed and transported to various raid shelters in Athens (35 crates were stored in the cave of the Enneakrounos and another 22 in the prison of Socrates near the Acropolis) the gold objects had been hidden away in the basements of the Bank of Greece, the large statues had been deposited in large trenches that were dug in the floor of the museum halls.

Drawing of a pit in the National Archaeological Museum for the burial of marble sculptures (Photo NAM)

Pulley transportation of the marble statue of Themis (inv. no 231), dated around 300 BC, from Rhamnous, Attica (left), The burial of the marble statue of Poseidon (inv. no 235), dated around 125-100 BC, from Melos (right) (Photos NAM)

Packing of the Geometric amphora (inv. no 803), of the years around 760-750 BC, from Dipylon, Athens, and other vases before hiding (Photo NAM)

Christos Karouzos and Semni Papaspyridi-Karouzou were the leading archaeologists that together with other archaeologists, museum guards, and their families, and many other people undertook the hiding of antiquities in 1940-1941. Testimonies and personal experiences of Semni Karouzou relating to that dramatic period were presented in March 1967 and published in 1984 in the Proceedings of the First Congress of the Greek Archaeologists Association. Referring specifically to the National Archaeological Museum, Semni Karouzou hands down to us: «It took six whole months, over the entire duration of the epic advance on the Albanian front, for our antiquities to be safely stored, the fate of which was a matter of such great concern to the people upon hearing about the war… Very early in the morning before the moonset, those who had undertaken this task were gathering to work in the Museum, it was night when they were leaving to go home». «When the occupation army entered the capital in April 1941, the task of concealing the ancient treasures of the National Museum had already been completed».

Christos Karouzos and Semni Papaspyridi-Karouzou. When Athens was occupied by the German army in 1941, the Karouzous were the only archaeologists in Greece to withdraw their membership of the German Archaeological Institute in protest (Photo: Draft of the letter sent by the Karouzos to the German Archaeological Institute of Athens, Source: Review Archaeological Issues, Sept/Dec2021). The letter was forwarded to Berlin through Walther Wrede, Director of the Athens Institute and representative of the Nazi Party in Greece. The Karouzos escaped imprisonment in a concentration camp thanks to the intervention of certain prominent German archaeologists. (Source: Wikipedia Semni Karouzou, Wikipedia Christos Carouzos).

In his interview of the 16th June 1945, Christos Karouzos, Director of the National Archaeological Museum, states to the philological periodical Eleftera Grammata: «Since many years the Institute had stopped having any relation to Science and it was imperative to cut short their hope that they would achieve anything at all by making an attempt, which I could guess would be systematic and methodical, to stain the reputation of us all with innocent propositions for peaceful cultural collaboration».

The bronze statue of Poseidon, or Zeus according to another view (inv. no 15161), dated around 460 BC, from the sea at Artemision, Euboea, covered with tar paper, before its hiding (Photo NAM)

Pit in a room of the museum filled with sculptures, before their hiding (Photo NAM)

National Archaeological Museum, 1940-1941. Hiding of funerary vases and reliefs in the basement (upper left), Rectangular pit for the hiding of the sculptures in the Room of Classical Funerary Sculptures (upper right), Placement of antiquities in boxes for hiding (lower), (Photos: NAM)

National Archaeological Museum, 1940-1941. Burial of entrance to a room for the hiding of antiquities (left), Museum Room with empty cases after the removal of antiquities for hiding (right) (Photos: NAM)

National Archaeological Museum, 1941. Sacks with sand protected the windows of the new extension of the Museum building. Antiquities were stored for hiding inside this part of the building (left), National Archaeological Museum, after 1949. Works in progress for the improvement of the Museum building (right) (Photos: NAM)

To uncover the buried antiquities was the main priority after the end of the war. Along with the anxiety about their fate: «What had happened under the thick layer of sand, which was the state of preservation of the buried sculptures…». Semni Karouzou later recalled that “It was with pride for our people that I was assured, in the end of the war when the boxes were opened and the antiquities received, despite [the] fatally insufficient supervision [of the packing process] not a single gold object, no precious gem was missing”. After the end of World War II, Christos Karouzos and Semni Karouzou were responsible for reinstalling the museum collections, using the catalogues Karouzou had made; this reinstallation was completed in 1947.

List of hidden objects (Photo: NAM)

As Semni Karouzou narrates, unique was the emotion when in 1947 the first three halls of the museum were opened, in the new wing with its entrance on Tositsa street: «It was the first presentation of antiquities after the war. At that time the 100 years since the founding of the French Archaeological School were also celebrated and it was the first gathering of archaeologists from all over the world. They had the opportunity among the other known and beloved artworks of the Museum to admire a new acquisition since the end of the occupation. A splendid Kouros with his name engraved on the statue base: Aristodikos».

Moments from the recovery of the ancient statues describes for us in his own way George Seferis, the Greek Nobel prized poet,  in the Days:

«Tuesday, 4th of June 1946

Noon in the Archaeological Museum. They now unbury – some in crates and some placed totally nude in the soil – the statues. In one of the old large halls, familiar to us since our school days with its rigid appearance that recalled somewhat the austere public library, the workers were digging with pickaxes and shovels. The floor, if one did not look at the ceiling, the windows and the walls with the golden inscriptions, could have been any other location of excavations. The statues sunken still in the earth, were visible from the waist up naked, planted in fate. …It was a resurrection dance of rising figures, a Day of Reckoning of bodies that filled you with mad joy».

(Source: National Archaeological Museum, Athens/Photographic Archive, © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports /Archaeological Receipts Fund, Editor of the Photographic Exhibitions and e-book: Dr. Maria Chidiroglou)

I.A.

TAGS: ARCHAEOLOGY | EXHIBITION | HISTORY | MUSEUMS