When a country goes to war, what happens to its artistic heritage? Is it worth risking one’s life to save a work of art from destruction? Two Italian famous paintings, Portrait of Antea by Parmigianino, and Portrait of Manzoni by Francesco Hayez, tell the story of how they and thousands of other masterpieces survived the 2nd World War unscathed, thanks to a small group of young Italian functionaries and art critics. First they protected the artworks from falling bombs by hiding them in safe places far from the cities ravaged by war. Then, after the armistice in 1943, the “monuments men” worked again to rescue the works from German raids as the front lines shifted north. Although not everything could be saved, it is thanks to them that we can still admire and display works by Caravaggio, Giorgione and Raphael to the world. The portraits accompany us as we leave the museums hosting them and, following the chronology of events, enter the places these portraits waited out the war. We travel to castle dungeons and the further reaches of noble historical buildings and convents, while archive footage and period photographs recreate the historical context, and show the operations involved in transporting the art as well as the modifications of the urban landscape made to protect monuments. General Clark complained that conducting a war in Italy was like fighting in a “goddamn museum”. That museum is still here and still tells the story of Italy’s identity, even as it conveys the timeless, universal value of beauty to all those who seeks it out in Italy’s fabled cities and museums today.