DOI issue:
Część I. Museum / Part I. The Museum
DOI article:Czyż, Piotr P.: Dzieła Ignacego Łopieńskiego oraz album rysunków Alfreda Schouppégo - powrót straty wojennej
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45362#0046
Piotr R Czyż Works by Ignacy Łopieński and an Album of Drawings by Alfred Schouppé...
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a strategie military target, as the Luftwaffe was stationed there from 1941, and an SS unit from
1943. On 21 September 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, a Soviet bomb seriously damaged
two crates, one of which contained graphic plates. This was the worst time for the collections
stored in the museum as the German troops stationed in the building increasingly pillaged and
senselessly destroyed them. “During the Uprising, the Nazis would rummage through the crates,
throwing out folders as they searched for hidden treasures,” recalled Mrozihska.6 It was also at
that time that a second lieutenant of the Wehrmacht took with him an unidentified folder of
drawings. Prints that had been set aside for the Łopieński show, marked “Łopieński - exhibi-
tion,” which can be seen on surviving lists, were held in crate marked “GR 7.”7 After the defeat
of the uprising, most of the crates, including the one with Łopieńskis works, were transported
to Fischhorn castle near Salzburg. SS Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein, Heinrich Himmler’s
personal representative, ordered SS Hauptsturmführer Moritz Arnhardt to bring everything
that had not been stolen and damaged out of the museum. Arnhardt told the museum staff that
he was acting on Hitler’s orders and that his mission was to evacuate the most valuable objects
to Nazi Germany. “After the defeat of the Uprising, the SS men took all collections depos-
ited in the rooms of the National Museum, [...] hurriedly loading cultural and art works. They
transported them first by car and then by train through Silesia and dropped off the unwrapped
items in Fischhorn, Fegelein’s den,”8 the “private” storeroom of artworks stolen from Poland.
The antiquities that remained in the building and that could not be protected inside the crates
were to be blown up together with the building. Luckily this did not happen, and the prints and
drawings remaining in the museum’s cabinets survived.
They Were Found, But Not All Were Returned
In July 1945, Polish painter and architect Bohdan Tadeusz Urbanowicz on his way back from
the prisoner-of-war camp in Murnau, Bavaria, settled in Salzburg, where his job was to facili-
tate the return to Poland for Poles liberated from camps and forced labour. He was informed
by Platoon Leader Jan Maj that abandoned Polish works of art, “Polish royal treasures, Polish
paintings, furniture, books,” filled Fischhorn castle, where the US Rainbow Division was
stationed, and that “Austrians and DPS [were] now stealing them.”9 It took long and complex
negotiations to gain the US Army’s consent for the restitution process, which would last from
September 1945 to March 1946.10 Urbanowicz was appointed head of this mission. The work
was arduous, for the majority of the museum items, book collections and archival materials
6 Mrozińska, Wspomnienia z czasów..., op. cit., p. 520.
7 Archive of the National Museum in Warsaw (henceforth: Archive NMW), Archiwum wojenne [Wartime
archive], vol. 2, signature 707a.
8 Bohdan Tadeusz Urbanowicz, “Ścieżki i spotkania,” Zeszyty Naukowe Akademii Sztuk Pięknych, 3 (25)
(1989), p. 74.
9 Displaced persons, abbreviated as DPs, was a term used by the Allies for individuals who had been
forced by the war to leave their homeland, and wanted to return home or find another country to live in, but who
were unable to do this without the assistance of third parties. Urbanowicz, “Ścieżki...,” op. cit., p. 68.
10 The news of the Polish collection at Fischhorn was greeted with scepticism in Poland. People did not believe
that works of such great value to Polish culture could be there. In mid-August 1945, Urbanowicz sought help in Warsaw
in meetings that included Karol Estreicher, Jr. He did procure a document authorizing him to launch restitution pro-
ceedings. See Bohdan Tadeusz Urbanowicz, “Dziennik Fischhomu,” in Walka 0 dobra kultury..., op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 334-84.
45
a strategie military target, as the Luftwaffe was stationed there from 1941, and an SS unit from
1943. On 21 September 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, a Soviet bomb seriously damaged
two crates, one of which contained graphic plates. This was the worst time for the collections
stored in the museum as the German troops stationed in the building increasingly pillaged and
senselessly destroyed them. “During the Uprising, the Nazis would rummage through the crates,
throwing out folders as they searched for hidden treasures,” recalled Mrozihska.6 It was also at
that time that a second lieutenant of the Wehrmacht took with him an unidentified folder of
drawings. Prints that had been set aside for the Łopieński show, marked “Łopieński - exhibi-
tion,” which can be seen on surviving lists, were held in crate marked “GR 7.”7 After the defeat
of the uprising, most of the crates, including the one with Łopieńskis works, were transported
to Fischhorn castle near Salzburg. SS Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein, Heinrich Himmler’s
personal representative, ordered SS Hauptsturmführer Moritz Arnhardt to bring everything
that had not been stolen and damaged out of the museum. Arnhardt told the museum staff that
he was acting on Hitler’s orders and that his mission was to evacuate the most valuable objects
to Nazi Germany. “After the defeat of the Uprising, the SS men took all collections depos-
ited in the rooms of the National Museum, [...] hurriedly loading cultural and art works. They
transported them first by car and then by train through Silesia and dropped off the unwrapped
items in Fischhorn, Fegelein’s den,”8 the “private” storeroom of artworks stolen from Poland.
The antiquities that remained in the building and that could not be protected inside the crates
were to be blown up together with the building. Luckily this did not happen, and the prints and
drawings remaining in the museum’s cabinets survived.
They Were Found, But Not All Were Returned
In July 1945, Polish painter and architect Bohdan Tadeusz Urbanowicz on his way back from
the prisoner-of-war camp in Murnau, Bavaria, settled in Salzburg, where his job was to facili-
tate the return to Poland for Poles liberated from camps and forced labour. He was informed
by Platoon Leader Jan Maj that abandoned Polish works of art, “Polish royal treasures, Polish
paintings, furniture, books,” filled Fischhorn castle, where the US Rainbow Division was
stationed, and that “Austrians and DPS [were] now stealing them.”9 It took long and complex
negotiations to gain the US Army’s consent for the restitution process, which would last from
September 1945 to March 1946.10 Urbanowicz was appointed head of this mission. The work
was arduous, for the majority of the museum items, book collections and archival materials
6 Mrozińska, Wspomnienia z czasów..., op. cit., p. 520.
7 Archive of the National Museum in Warsaw (henceforth: Archive NMW), Archiwum wojenne [Wartime
archive], vol. 2, signature 707a.
8 Bohdan Tadeusz Urbanowicz, “Ścieżki i spotkania,” Zeszyty Naukowe Akademii Sztuk Pięknych, 3 (25)
(1989), p. 74.
9 Displaced persons, abbreviated as DPs, was a term used by the Allies for individuals who had been
forced by the war to leave their homeland, and wanted to return home or find another country to live in, but who
were unable to do this without the assistance of third parties. Urbanowicz, “Ścieżki...,” op. cit., p. 68.
10 The news of the Polish collection at Fischhorn was greeted with scepticism in Poland. People did not believe
that works of such great value to Polish culture could be there. In mid-August 1945, Urbanowicz sought help in Warsaw
in meetings that included Karol Estreicher, Jr. He did procure a document authorizing him to launch restitution pro-
ceedings. See Bohdan Tadeusz Urbanowicz, “Dziennik Fischhomu,” in Walka 0 dobra kultury..., op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 334-84.