The “Mother Sorrowful” and the “ecce homo” by the Belgian artist Eryk Bouts They were part of the diptych that had been in the Polish castle of Goluchów since 1883 and were transferred from there to Warsaw, where they were stolen by the Nazis in the invasion that triggered the Second World War.
From that moment, the trail was lost until they reappeared in the Museum of Pontevedra, located in the northwest of Spain. The paintings were located, in 2019, by Polish State officials who are carrying out a campaign to locate and return the stolen works of art and historical objects. Poland during the war of the last century.
According to the EFE agency, the Polish Minister of Culture, Piotr Glinski, He recalled that Poland “lost more than 500,000 works and artistic objects” in the looting unleashed during the War, that up to 70% of the books in Polish libraries were “stolen or destroyed” and that in total cultural assets worth about 10,000 million euros.
For his part, the Spanish ambassador in Poland, Ramiro Fernandez BachelorAfter confirming that the two paintings have already been in Poland since Friday, March 17, I affirm that the territorial integrity of all countries also includes their cultural heritage. The director of the Museum of Pontevedra, Jose Manuel Rey, explained how the request of the Polish State surprised the authorities of the institution who, as soon as they were aware of the true origin of the paintings, had no doubt that they had to proceed with their restitution.
At present, there are still works that are still missing. The work “Portrait of a young man” of the artist raphael, is one of the paintings that was stolen from Poland and the trail of many others is still continued. According to the director of the Poznań Museum, Tomasz Lecky, the entity that manages the collection exhibited in the castle of Goluchówthe incidents suffered by the restored works of art symbolize the tragic circumstances that affected multiple paintings by the Nazi invasion.
Since the research process was carried out through the internet and there are some replicas of these works, the Polish technicians had to resort to relating clues provided by experts, original sources and historical documents that confirmed that they were indeed the paintings. looted.
Regarding the restitution process, Glinski highlighted the professionalism shown at all times by the Spanish authorities and expressed his wish that future restitution processes with other countries involved “be carried out in the same way, which up to now has not been the case”.
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