Poland launches campaign to regain looted art from Russia
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Loading... - Jeremy MOORE
- 02 Nov 2022
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The Polish government has launched a campaign to seek the return of hundreds of thousands of works of art and other cultural items that still remain missing after disappearing during the German and Soviet occupations in World War Two. It is focusing in particular on items now in Russia.
As well as losing around six million of its citizens during the war (17% of the population, a higher proportional death toll than any other country), Poland also saw much of its cultural heritage destroyed or stolen.
Launching the new “Empty Frames” campaign yesterday, culture minister Piotr GliÅ„ski noted that already by 1942 – in the middle of the war – it was estimated that around half the holdings of Polish museums had disappeared.
Postwar estimates indicated over 500,000 items had been stolen or damaged, with a combined value at the time of billions of dollars, says his ministry. A large proportion of those have never been recovered.
“To this day, in many Polish museums there are empty frames,” said GliÅ„ski. “Poland will never stop searching for and recovering cultural goods stolen during the war.”
While the current whereabouts of many plundered items remain unknown, the minister noted that Poland has also submitted 20 restitution claims to Russia for thousands of identified items. But the Russian government has not responded.
The items include works by Italian painters Luca Giordano, Spinello Aretino and Lorenzo di Credi that have been identified in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, according to the ministry.
“Under international law, Russia is obliged to return Polish cultural goods stolen during the war,” noted GliÅ„ski. “Cases of the plunder of cultural goods do not expire – not only in the ethical and moral sense, but also in the sphere of international law.” Read More…
