Protect the Picasso: Fearing Iranian attack, Tel Aviv museum stashes priceless art
Facility is moving more valuable works from its collections to an underground safe room first utilized after October 7, leaving some galleries with blank walls
AFP — A Tel Aviv museum that hid some of its most valuable artworks after the October 7 attack has now stashed away even more, fearing a strike by Iran.
Paintings by Pablo Picasso and Gustav Klimt are among the treasures moved by Tel Aviv Museum of Art to the “safe” — a secured basement meant to shield them from missiles.
Museum staff moved many of the masterpieces at the start of the Gaza war, which was triggered when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and abducting 251 people into Gaza, most of them civilians.
Now, as Israel braces itself for a threatened bombardment by Iran and its proxies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, they have moved other pieces that were at risk.
It has left some galleries vacant, with blank walls decorated only with empty hooks and the small, printed descriptions for the artworks that previously hung there.
“In the last three, four, five days, when this new threat from Hezbollah and from Iran came on the table again, we understood that we needed to take other precautions,” said museum director Tania Coen-Uzzielli.
“So we took down several other works of art and the ones we felt that were most in danger. And since the situation is not going to be clear, and this threat is always there, we feel that the safe place for them is downstairs in the shelters.”
Some items are on display in a protected space on a lower level, but the most valuable pieces are stored in rows of large, metal grills in the “safe.”
“We have some works by Picasso… from different periods,” said Nathalie Andrijasevic, assistant curator of modern art, rolling out one storage rack.
“They are all usually in the gallery, they are all usually hung right next to each other. Here they are still next to each other, but in a completely different setting.”
During the October 7 attack, terrorists fired massive volleys of rockets at Tel Aviv and other areas, leading officials to scramble to protect the pieces.
“On October 7, we didn’t know what’s going on. We just knew that something horrible was going on throughout the country,” Andrijasevic said.
“Rockets were firing non-stop. And we were just super-scared that rockets will penetrate the ceiling of the galleries and cause damage to our works.”
Iran and Hezbollah have both threatened to respond to the July 31 killing of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, widely attributed to Israel, and an Israeli drone strike the same day that killed top Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr.
In April, Iran responded to the killing of two Revolutionary Guards generals in Syria by firing a massive volley of hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, most of which were knocked down.
“Recently, during the past week, we’ve been taking down some more because of the imminent attack that is supposed to happen,’Andrijasevic said. “Hopefully it will not happen.”
Iranian and US officials indicated Tuesday that the reprisal could be pushed off to allow for ceasefire and hostage negotiation talks to advance. Negotiations are set to resume Thursday.
Israel’s military offensive in Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages has killed at least 39,929 people, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory, which does not differentiate between civilian and fighter deaths. The figures cannot be verified.
