Works of art stolen in Krakow return to Poland from Ukraine

“We are very grateful to all Ukrainian agencies for their help in recovering the stolen works of art. They wouldn’t have returned to Poland if it hadn’t been for the engagement of the Ukrainian side,” Deputy Minister Bogusław Winid said during the ceremony. “We urge auction houses to be more careful and ensure their collections are well protected,” he emphasized. 

Józef Gemra, Director of the International Cooperation Department, accepted the recouped painting and sculptures on behalf of the Prosecution General. 

The works in question are “Annunciation,” a Rhine school painting dating back to the 16th century, and two bronze sculptures: a figurine of a boy holding geese and a group statute depicting two pheasants. The former sculpture was created by the Dresden-based artist Richard Daniel Fabricius (1863-1923), while the latter was made by Auguste Cain (1822-1894), a popular French sculptor whose monuments and small portrayals of wild and domesticated animals can be found all over Paris. Both works bear signatures. 

It is the second batch of works that have been stolen by the same group of thieves in Poland. In December 2008 it was possible to regain four exhibits that originally stemmed from the 2006  exposition “Napoleon and the Poles” staged at the Museum of the Polish Army in Warsaw. Efforts by the MFA helped recover Prince Józef Poniatowski’s Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour with ribbon dating back to 1809, an 18th-century silver goblet (captured in the Kremlin in 1812) that had belonged to the Princes Czartoryski Foundation in Krakow, a Star from the Grand Ribbon of the Order of Virtuti Militari stemming from the National Museum in Krakow, and the Order of Saint Stanislaus which had been stolen from the Museum in Kornik near Poznan. 

MFA Press Office