Germany / Italy: German soldiers unloading looted Florentine masterpieces including Luca Signorelli's 'Crucifixion' in Alto Adige, 13 August 1944

Open-top trucks hastily loaded with some of the Florentine treasures, including this painting from the Uffizi—Luca Signorelli’s Crucifixion—began arriving in the northern Italian region of Alto Adige on August 13, 1944.

German soldiers transported the uncrated paintings over hundreds of miles of poor-quality roads with little more protection than straw. Worried the art would be transported into the Reich, Italian officials desperately tried to regain control of their treasures, to no avail. The location of the German hiding places eluded the Monuments Men until the last two weeks of the war.

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