Lost painting returns to Poland

“This is the second time I have witnessed a work of art returning to the National Museum in Wroclaw,” said Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna during a ceremony to hand over Peter Mulier’s The Calm Sea by a Rocky Shore to the museum.

“The painting has an interesting history. Like many other works of art in this region, it went missing during World War II. It was found in Italy, and sent back to Poland thanks to local authorities,” said Minister Schetyna.

“I am happy that so many lost works of art return to our country,” Schetyna added.

The Calm Sea by a Rocky Shore was part of the collection of Albrecht Sebisch (1685-1748), a Wrocław-based patrician, member and head of the city’s municipal council, and grandson of the commander of the Kamyanets-Podilskyi Castle, the Polish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Ernst Wilhelm Hubrig, the heir to Sebisch’s fortune, donated the collection to the city of Wrocław in 1767. Since 1880, the collection was on display at the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts (Schlesisches Museum der bildenden Künste).

In 1942, it was moved to war storehouses in the provinces, together with the rest of the museum’s collections. The painting probably went missing in 1945, after the territory was occupied by the Red Army. (rg)