Yearbook of Bibliology and Press Studies

Summary

The attainment of full sovereignty by Poland on the 12 September 1989, when the first non-com-
munist government after the second World War, with Prime Minister T. Mazowiecki in charge, was
formed, enabled archivists, librarians and museologists to take up the issue concerning the recovering
or distribution (copying of documents) of Polish cultural heritage lost in the past. A key role in the
reconstitution process was played by the Polish journalists environment which in the central and local
press systematically informed the Polish society about the lost cultural heritage. Poland in accordance
to article 28 of the Polish-German treaty of good neighbourliness and friendly collaboration on 17 June
1991 took steps to regain its lost property. There was success in the recovery of the following items
from Germany: a) in 1992 1700 silver and some gold coins stolen from the national Archaeological
Museum in Warsaw and a branch of the Wielkopolski Museum of Ancient pre-war history in Ponań;
b) in the year 2000 stolen in 1994 the national Museum in Wrocław (from its constituents in Lubiąż)
paintings, among others "scene from the life of actors", "Feeding Madonna", "Maria Magdalena"
(found in a conservator's workshop in Hamburg) and also Jan Styk (1858–1925): "The Dame of May"
as well as "Odyseusz and Nauzykaa" already put up for sale in an auction house in Albersdorf): c) in
the year 2001 3361 birth certificates which were returned to the archdiocesean and diocesean archives
in elbląg, ełk, Gdańsk, Gnieżno, Olsztyn, Pelplin, Płock, Szczecin, Torun and Włocławek: d) in the
year 2002 etruski's mirror of isabel from Czartoryski's Działyńska, which was taken away from the
buildings of Warsaw's national Museum (was returned there as a depo sit from the palace in Gołuchow)
and found its way in 1955 to the collections of the museum in Hamburg; e) in the year 2004 the painting
"Woman in armchair" by Charles-Francois Hutin; f) in July 2011 Alexander Gierymski's(1850-1901)
painting "Jewess with oranges". ...The total loss incurred by Poland (in economic and cultural terms)
from the Third Reich is estimated at 860 billion to 1 trillion dollars (according to the exchange rate of
May 2005). What was recovered constitutes just a small shred of German pillage in Poland.