The Tel Aviv Museum of Art has remained mostly closed to the public since February 28, when the US-Israeli war with Iran began and the threat of missile strikes sent Israelis to shelters — and much of its art underground.

The museum plans on reopening this weekend amid the current two-week ceasefire, but in the meantime has been offering tours in the institution’s basements, a rare behind-the-scenes tour featuring artworks that were removed from display due to the war.

Small groups of 25 can sign up for “The Event Has Not Ended / Emergency Tour in the Museum’s Underground Spaces,” which begins in the empty galleries of the exhibition “End of the Day: One Hundred Years of the New Objectivity Movement.”

The tour’s title is a play on the message the IDF Home Front Command sends to residents when they can leave bomb shelters after a rocket or missile siren: “The event has ended.”

Assistant curator Naama Bar-Or guided one group on a recent afternoon, pointing out the blank spots on the wall where pieces from the rare private collection had been displayed for the exhibit that opened on December 16.

The show features a selection of artworks from the private holdings of German collector Jan Fischer, all exposing the “New Objectivity” art period of extreme upheaval in German society between the two World........

© The Times of Israel