The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-21
SAVING TREASURES .OF ART FROM TEUTON 710 Canvases Removed From
 Galleries in Paris DONE IN 4s HOURS
Venus De Milo, Weighing Three Tons, Gave More Trouble Than Anything Else-The Crown Jewels Were
 Source of Great Anxiety

Paris. October 25.-(Correspondence of the Associated Press) )-Many conflicting reports have been published of the cir cumstances under which the art treasures of Paris were placed in safety while the Germans were approaching the capital Albert Dalimier. under secretary for fine arts, now gives the exact details in an interview published here.
 'As early as August" Mir Dalimier says, T had considered with my col- leagues the measures to be taken to save our art treasures from the eventuality of the German invasion. We did not want to alarm the public bystaking such steps before they became absolutely imperative. It was only when Won Kluck approached Paris with remarkable rapidity that we decided to act, and we were obliged to act quickly They gave me 4S hours to pack up the rarest objects of our collection and send them out of Paris by railroad, to be sheltered in an important city of the south of France. The task was ardu- ous and delicate. The most insignificant incident might compromise the operation hopelessly and the rapidity with which we necessarily acted inevitably developed some nervousness.
 Moved 710 Canvases
 Tn very short time we established list of 710 canvasses that we considered it necessary to put into place of safety. Only 250 pictures were removed from the museums in 1870 during the siege of Paris. Comparatively. our task was far greater. Some experts declared that it was impossible in view of the mobiliza- tiOn of he ar ri nf the narSOnnal of the museums, but we were determined to make the maximum effort. All the furniture moving houses in Paris were called upon by telephone to send every available moving van immediately and the removal of the pictures and statuary began at once. The Venus de Milo, which weighs three tons, gave us the greatest trouble, after which the most delicate operations were the packing and removal of the precious objects and furniture of the Gallery of Apollo at the Louvre.
 "As for the crown diamonds their re- moval was delicate task that Henri Marcel, director of the national museums and myself decided that we could not del- egate to anyone. Procuring an ordinary
 leather satchel, wa placed the diamonds in it and left for the railroad station at nightfall. The situation was disquiet- ing, for number of reasons. The sta- tion was crowded, the streets full of reo- pie hurrying out of Paris before the Ap- preaching army.
 We dined at the buffet of the railroad station-very poorly, because the respon- sibility of the safety of those jewels spoiled our appetites. It seemed to both of us that the eyes of every person in the restaurant were fixed upon that leather bag, and it occurred to us what a simple matter it wotild be for an i'll designing. audacious person to make a considerable haul that evening in the confusion of the exodus We succeeded in getting places in the train, crowded to overfowing, with panicky passengers. When we arrived at our journeys end we were not at the end of our troubles with those famous jewels. It was almost impossible to find a safe in which to put them We had heen preceded, it seemed, by every owner of a pearl necklace in Paris. and all the boxes of the only safe deposit places in the city were already filled. We finally found an empty drawer in the safe of branch of Parisian bank and it is there the jewels of the crown have been in safekeeping ever since. al- ways under the eswatchful eye of men from the Fine Arts, men detailed by the bank and all of them supervised by private de- tectives.
 The watch over the paintings and ob- Jects of art is an even more important affair. They filled scores of moving vans assembled In a large courtyard where there were formerly shoeshops locksmiths and small tradespeople of all sorts who gave up their establishments in order to contribute to the safety of the national art treasures All the doors leading to the court were sealed up, bars placed on all windows fire fighting apparatus installed and constantly, day and night, the entire block around this court was patrolled by territorials with fixed bayonets
 Tn addition to the art Urea asures of the Louvre and other Paris museums. such as the Luxembourg and Cluny. the chateaux of Fontainbleau and Compiegne were stripped of everything that was movable and the greater part of the art treasures of Arras have also been saved
 A Fatal Mistake ss