Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (32.1991)

Mr. Adam Kilian, a well-known scenographer, designed the exhibition like the interior of
a palące bringing together all these various elements.

We Were extremely pleased to be able to honour Edward Raczyński with this official opening
ceremony, attended by luminaries of Polish public political and cultural life. It was our wish
to express our admiration for the Count and once again to bring into the spotlight the Man —
a high official of Poland and great statesman as well as a benefactor of culture as a whole. A mes-
sagc from the President of the Polish Republic, Mr. Lech Wałęsa, was read at the opening by
Minister Szymon Pawlicki. This was followed by speeches by Minister of Foreign Affairs Krzysztof
Skubiszewski, Minister of Art and Culture Marek Rostworowski, President of the Raczyński
Foundation Konstanty Kalinowski, Director of the Royal Castle in Warsaw Andrzej Rottermund
and Vice-director of the National Museum in Warsaw Jerzy Malinowski. Closing the list of
speakers were representatives of the City Council of Poznań, President Tomasz Sokołowski and
councillor Jan Skuratowicz.

Dr. Maria Skubiszewska
Curator of the Gallery of European Painting

Translated by Iwona Zych

FOUNDATION OF THE RACZYŃSKI FAMILY AT THE NATIONAL

MUSEUM IN POZNAŃ

In the year of his hundredth birthday, Count Edward Raczyński added new important
contributions to the list of his meritoriuos aecomplishements for the Polish nation and state.
The most important of them is the establishing of the Foundation of his name at the National
Museum in Poznań; the rights of the Count Raczyński and that of his family to the Palące of
Rogalin and to the priceless collections gathcred there were transferred to the public.

Recent political events in Poland brought a renewed adherence to the j>rinciples of a law-
-abiding state. The new situation confrontcd Polish museums with, until now, unexpected dif-
ficult legał problems. Museums are presently under obligation to determine the legał ownership
of many works of art which had entered state collections during World War II and in the postwar
years. At that time thousands of art objects had been entered in museum registers and published
in catalogues as museum property, put on permanent display or else exhibited periodically,
indeed had become part of the national culture heritage in public consciousness. This situation
in which new legał regulations havc provided legitimate owners with the rights to seek the reco-
very of their property, has caused understandable consternation in the museum community,
but it has also created generał public concern that the common cultural heritage on display
in the nation's museums will be greatly impoverished as a result.

In these circumstances the establishing of the Raczyński Foundation at the National Museum
in Poznań came as an event of particular importance. It provided a model solution regulating
the present difficult relations betw'een museum institutions and the lawful owners of the natio-
nal heritage displayed in museum collections.

Since it was a spearheading case, the settling of the legał status of the Rogalin Gallery, which
constitutes an important part of the collection of Polish painting in the National Museum in
Poznań, met with many difficulties. In pushing the matter to a succesful end, the Director of
the National Museum in Poznań was aided appreciably by Ambassador of the Polish Republic
in London Tadeusz de Yirion, the founder of the Ciechanowiecki Foundation Dr Andrzej Cie-

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