Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (32.1991)

The last owners of Rogalin before 1939, Roger Adam and Edward Bernard, the sons of the
collectors, devoted themselves above all to diplomatic work.67

They managed to dispose safely of only part o^ the Rogalin collections on the eve of the
outbreak of the second World war. They deposited the rich family archives — containing docu-
ments, correspondence, memoirs and priceless iconographic metarials — in their Warsaw resi-
dence at No. 5 Krakowskie Przedmieście street. These documents were almost completely de-
stroyed in September 19 3 9.68 The Gallery collections were also evacuated to Warsaw and left
in the National Muscum. They were removed from Poland towards the end of the war by the
Germans, recovered in 1945 and returned to Warsaw. The greater part of them was handed
over to the National Museum in Poznań in 19 5 6.60 In 1949 the palące in Rogalin Was incorpo-
rated into the Museum in Poznań, to form a branch of it; after the necessary repair work had
bcen carried out, an exhibition of minor arts was organized there initially.70 After 1956 it became
possible to organize an exhibition of paintings from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
in the Gallery; to a large extent this was made up of works from the former collection of Edward
Aleksander.71

Recently, an event took place which was significant for the fate of Rogalin. In 1990 Edward
Bernard Raczyński, the former President of the Polish Government-in-Exile in London, and
the last of the Rogalin Raczyńskis, set up a perpetual Foundation, called the Raczyński Founda-
tion, in the National Muscum in Poznań, donating to it the family collections which are kept
in the Poznań Museum and the Rogalin palące. This magnanimous gesture is in keeping with
the fine nineteenth century traditions of the Raczyński family. In this way We are left a lasting
reminder of the passion for collecting of this public-spirited family from Great Poland, who
for so many generations acted as patrons to Polish science and culture.

Translated by Aidan Doyle

67. Roger A. Raczyński (1889—1945) was tbe First Secretary of the embassy of the Polish Republic in Rome in the years-
1919—20, in 1926—34 he was voivode of the Poznań district,in 1934—36 the Deputy Minister for Agriculture,in 1938—40
the Polish ambassador in Bucharest and a Polish envoy to the Greek govcrnm'ent in 1942—45. Edward B. Raczyński
(h. 1891) Worked as a diplomat in Bern, Copenhagen and tbe Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw, and he was a Polish
delegate to the League of Nations in Geneva; in 1934 be was appointed Polish ambassador in London, and it was in this
role that he entered the annals of history. Duringtbe second World war be represented Poland in Great Britain,in 1941—4$
he also acted as Minister of Foreign Affairs, working closely with General Władysław Sikorski. After 1945 he rcmained
in exile in London. From 1979 to 1986 he Was tbe Presiden of the Polish Government-in-ExiiIe.

68. The Raczyński Palące at No. 5 Krakowskie Przedmieście street (inherited by Róża nee Potocka in 1873 from her first
husband Władysław Krasiński; it passed to the Raczyńskis following her second marriage to Edward Aleksander, and
Edward Bernard Raczyński became its oWner in 1909) Was also known as the Czapski Palące. It was burnt down during
the bombardment on 25 September 1939. Its extremely rich furnishings were destroyed, as welł as tbe gallery which con-
tained abont threc himdred items (including Works by Rubens, Sofonisba Anguisciola and Bernardo Bellotto called Ca-
naletto); a tiny part of the collection survived and is preserved today in tbe National Museum in Warsaw; see E. Raczyński,
Rogalin..., op. cit., pp. 11—12; J. Mieleszko, Pałac Czapskich, Warszawa, 1971 (tbe Pałace no%v bouses the Acadcmy of
Fine Arts).

69. Eleven containers were taken to Warsaw and left in the National Musem on 16 May 1939, hut only the contents of ten
of them (327 items in all) were taken into deposit in 1941. The Poznań Muscum received 263 items from Warsaw in 1956
and in the years that followed (132 by Polish and 131 by foreign artists). Tbe National Museum in Warsaw kept 47 Polish
paintings and 26 foreign ones (some of them lost).

70. On the fortunes of the Palace-cum-Museum in Rogalin after tbe war, sec A. Dobrzycka and K. Malinowski, ''Muzeum
Narodowe w Poznaniu 1945—1952", Muzealnictwo I, 1953, pp. 179—280, and M. Pawlaczyk, "25 lat Muzeum w Roga-
linie", Studia Muzealne, XI, 1975, pp. 102—103.

71. See M. Pawlaczyk, Pałac w Rogalinie. Muzeum wnętrz i Galeria malarstwa. Przewodnik, Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu,
Poznań, 1978.

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