Deputy director and later Director (from 1940) of the Ecole du Louvre and France’s National Museums, Jacques Jaujard was the true driving force behind the strategy designed to protect the collections of France’s leading museums during the Second World War.
In 1944, he was appointed Director of Literature and the Arts by the newly-formed 4th Republic, and received the Médaille de la Résistance for services to the nation during the war. He served as Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture under André Malraux from 1959 onwards, before retiring in 1966 and passing away the following year.