Over 70 years have passed since the end of the Second World War, but even so, this has proved to be too little time to solve the problem of recovering lost Polish cultural property.
Polish Wartime Losses are considered to be moveable cultural property, lost from public, private and church collections, from within the post-1945 borders of Poland, as a result of the Second World War.
Prof. Karol Estreicher (1906-1984) – art historian, bibliographer, writer and playwright.
During the Second World War, working as Secretary to Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski in exile, he got involved in research into Polish losses to Polish culture, managing an 8-person team, creating the Office for the Recovery of Cultural Losses at the Ministry of Congressional Work in London. The basic task of the office was the collection of information sent by archivists, curators, and librarians by courier from the occupied homeland as well as preparation of reports for the Allied governments. After the war, Karol Estreicher returned to Poland, bringing valuable Polish works of art and archives recovered from the British zone in occupied Germany. A photograph of Estriecher in the uniform of a Major in the Polish Armed Forces in the West, presenting Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine, unharmed, at Cracow Main Train Station is evidence of this event.
Estreicher left on recovery missions to Germany several times in order to bring St Mary’s Altar back to Cracow from Nuremburg, where it had been taken in 1940. For the next few years he was the Director of the Museum of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and President of the Cracow Society of Friends of Fine Art. As a pensioner, he was called upon as an expert in the case of German Democratic Republic demands regarding the return of the Prussian Library, which has been stored since 1945 in the Jagiellonian Library. He opted for its return, on condition that the GDR surrendered stolen Polish cultural property as well as compensated for losses due to intentional destruction of cultural property after the fall of the Warsaw Uprising.
Prof. Stanisław Lorentz (1899-1991) – art historian and curator. From 1936 he was the Director of the National Museum in Warsaw. During the Second World War, he coordinated the protection of Polish cultural property. During the September Campaign, of his own accord, he ensured the safety of the collections of the National Museum, the Royal Palace, Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts and Royal Lazienki in Warsaw. Later he became a representative of the Government Delegation for Poland, the work of which was connected to running an inventory of the protected and removed exhibits. He played a critical role at the end of the Warsaw Uprising, when he led the evacuation of the collections of libraries, museums and archives, protecting them from German troops who were destroying and burning the city down. Soon after the German capitulation, prof Lorentz took part in preparing the exhibition ‘Warsaw accuses’, presenting the destruction of Polish culture. He held the role Director of the National Museum in Warsaw until 1982. As the chairman of the Chief Directorate of Museums and Protection of Monuments, he coordinated the rebuilding of monuments and the recovery processes of works of art.
Prof. Jan Pruszyński (1941-2008) – lawyer, specialist in monument protection and cultural heritage. From 1967 he was connected with the Institute of Legal Science in the Polish Academy of Science. For many years he took part in scientific councils and consulting bodies in the area of monument protection and also cooperated with the Office of the Government Ombudsman for Polish Cultural Heritage abroad (later the Department for Polish Cultural Heritage Abroad MKiND), offering his advice and experience. The professor was the author of the fundamental monograph “Polish Cultural Heritage, its losses and legal protection” (Cracow 2001) among others.
The convention regarding the customs and laws of land war signed on 18th October 1907 in The Hague (Journal of laws 1927, Nr 21, para 161)
http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU19270210161
The convention on the protection of cultural property in times of armed conflict together with the executive regulations for the convention and the protocol on protection of cultural property in times of armed conflict, signed in The Hague on 14th May 1954 (Journal of laws 1957, Nr 46, para 212)
http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU19570460212
The European cultural convention drawn up in Paris on 19th December 1954 (Journal of laws 1990, Nr 8, para 44)
http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU19900080044
The convention regarding the means aimed at the prohibition and prevention of illegal import, export and devolvement of ownership of cultural property, signed in Paris on 17th November 1970. (Journal of laws 1974, Nr 20, para 106)
http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU19740200106
The agreement on cooperation and mutual help in cases of seizure and return of cultural property illegally transported over national borders, signed in Plovdiv on 22nd April 1986. (Journal of laws 1988, Nr 38, para 296)
http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU19880380296
Unidroit Convention on Stolen or illegally Exported Cultural Objects 1995 (Yet to be ratified by Poland)
http://www.unidroit.org/english/conventions/1995culturalproperty/1995culturalproperty-e.pdf
The directive of the Council of the European Union nr 93/7 from 15th March 1993 regarding the return of monuments illegally removed from the terrain of a member state. (Official Journal of the European Union 1993, L74 with later revisions)
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31993L0007:PL:NOT
Act nr 93/90 Council of Ministers of 27th June 1990 regarding the establishment of a Government Ombudsman for Polish Cultural Heritage abroad. Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 20th August 1996 reagrding the establishment of a Government Ombudsman for Polish Cultural Heritage abroad (Journal of laws Nr 107, para 504)
http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU19961070504
Act of 23rd July 2003 regarding the protection of historical treasures and care of historical treasures (Journal of laws Nr 162, para 1568 with later revisions)
http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU20031621568
Cultural losses of Poland. Index of Polish cultural losses during the German occupation, 1939-1944, ed. by Charles Estreicher, London 1944.
Tomkiewicz Władysław, Katalog obrazów wywiezionych z Polski przez okupantów niemieckich w latach 1939-1945. t. 1, Malarstwo obce, Prace i Materiały Wydziału Rewindykacji i Odszkodowań nr 9, Warszawa: Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki 1949.
Katalog obrazów wywiezionych z Polski przez okupantów hitlerowskich w latach 1939-1945, t. 2, Malarstwo polskie, pod red. Wydziału Wydawnictw, Prace i Materiały Wydziału Rewindykacji i Odszkodowań nr 11, Warszawa: Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki 1951.
Straty wojenne zbiorów polskich w dziedzinie rzemiosła artystycznego. t. 1, Szkło i ceramika, wyroby złotnicze, tkaniny dekoracyjne, meble zabytkowe, instrumenty muzyczne; aut. Benedykt Tyszkiewicz et al., kom. red. Władysław Tomkiewicz, Krystyna Sroczyńska, Stanisław Nahlik, Prace i Materiały Wydziału Rewindykacji i Odszkodowań nr 12, Warszawa: Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki 1953.
Straty wojenne zbiorów polskich w dziedzinie rzemiosła artystycznego. t. 2, Sztuka ludowa, żydowska sztuka kultowa, militaria, aut. Tadeusz Seweryn, Józef Sandel, Mieczysław Chojnacki, kom. red. Władysław Tomkiewicz, Krystyna Sroczyńska, Stanisław Nahlik, Prace i Materiały Wydziału Rewindykacji i Odszkodowań nr 13, Warszawa: Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki 1953.
Kaczmarzyk Dariusz, Straty wojenne Polski w dziedzinie rzeźby, Prace i Materiały Wydziału Rewindykacji i Odszkodowań nr 14 , Warszawa: Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki 1958.
Nahlik Stanisław Edward, Grabież dzieł sztuki: rodowód zbrodni międzynarodowej, Wrocław 1958.
Walka o dobra kultury. Warszawa 1939-1945. Księga zbiorowa, t. 1–2, pod red. Stanisława Lorentza, Warszawa 1970.
Kowalski Wojciech, Restytucja dzieł sztuki. Studium z dziedziny prawa międzynarodowego, wyd. 2, Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Śląskiego w Katowicach nr 1388, Katowice 1993.
Pruszyński Jan, Dziedzictwo kultury Polski, jego straty i ochrona prawna, t. 1-2, Kraków 2001.
Estreicher Karol, Straty kultury polskiej pod okupacją niemiecką 1939-1944 wraz z oryginalnymi dokumentami grabieży, red., wstęp Zbigniew Kazimierz Witek, Kraków 2003.
Matelski Dariusz, Grabież i restytucja polskich dóbr kultury od czasów nowożytnych do współczesnych, t. 1-2, przedmowa i red. Zbigniew Kazimierz Witek, Kraków 2006.
Nicholas Lynn H., Grabież Europy. Losy dzieł sztuki w Trzeciej Rzeszy i podczas II wojny światowej, Kraków 1997, II wyd. 2014.