"Our bedroom was nicely decorated." Pearl Witherington and treasures from the Louvre

"When we arrived in Gatines, we first slept in a farm called Coloumbier that was in the forest...Later, in September, when we were sure there weren't too many Germans in the vicinity, we moved into the chateau in Valencay. We stayed there for a while.

"Some of the Louvre's treasures were stored away in the chateau, including the sculptures Victoire de Samothrace, the Venus de Milo, and engravings by Rembrandt and Durer. In once sense, our bedroom was nicely decorated. But it wasn't a bedroom; it seemed to us more of a ballroom...

"The works of art were locked away in cases. Employees from the national museums were there and opened one of them for us. Andre Leroi-Gourhan took that initiative. He said, 'I'll show you things the public never sees.' He showed us a very old tiara belonging to the pope and engravings by Rembrandt where you could see corrections to the drawing on the copper."


Excerpt from "Into the Forest" from Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent.