This book tells the story of the Musée du Louvre during World War II. It is richly illustrated with many previously unseen French and German photographs taken between 1938 and 1947, and sheds new light on the evacuation and reinstallation of the museum's treasures during the tumultuous years of the war.

Two important discoveries are made public for the first time: the collection of photographer Pierre Jahan (purchased by the museum in 2005), and a set of photographs found in 2004 in the Koblenz Archives, showing the so-called "Louvre sequestration": the requisitioning of rooms in the palace by the Nazis to sort and store the artworks plundered from Jewish collections. Other photographs by press or independent photographers of the 1940s provide the background context to these images.

The book also introduces the work of three talented photographers: Pierre Jahan, Laure Albin-Guillot, and Marc Vaux. Immersed in the artistic culture of the 30s and 40s, they belong to the "humanist" photographic movement, and offer today's visitor a remarkable view of the Louvre haunted by its collections.