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

Artwork from the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which were moved into the museum's underground safe to protect them from possible damage caused by rocket attacks, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, on Nov. 14. Tel Aviv museum director Tania Coen-Uzzielli poses in front of Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Friederike Maria Beer," 1916. (Maya Levin for NPR)

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.