Treasures destroyed and masterpieces in vaults: War's toll for art in Israel and Gaza

Curators of Israeli and Palestinian history and art have found themselves confronted by very different realities in the scramble to preserve museum works in the middle of an ongoing war.

In the frightening early hours of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, some museums in Israel worked quickly to remove priceless artifacts and art from their walls into safe bunkers in the basements of institutions like the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Art Museum.

Many staffers, who dedicate their lives to preserving cultural artifacts, put aside their own fears and concern for their families and set out to work as word of the brutality of the Hamas attack spread.

These are items that will outlive all of us, Tel Aviv Art Museum Director Tania Coen-Uzzielli told NPR of the unprecedented decision to move several major pieces of modern art into the facility's secure vaults since the outbreak of the war.

"Those are really the cultural treasures of the state and all the world," she said of the