Two paintings from the 15th century that were considered to have been looted by Nazi German forces during the Second World War have been restored to Polish officials by a museum in northwest Spain.
On Wednesday, the paintings Mater Dolorosa (Mother of Sorrows) and Ecce Homo were presented to a group from Poland’s minister of culture.
The paintings, which are now credited to a member of Dieric Bouts’ school or group, were initially thought to be the work of the Flemish artist who was born in the Dutch town of Haarlem, according to Spain’s Museum of Pontevedra.
The museum claimed that in 2020, Polish officials informed it that the artworks had been stolen by the Nazis.
The museum made the hasty decision to send them back to Poland, but it wasn’t until recently because the transfer’s legal permissions had been finalized.
When the German military invaded Goluchow during World War II, Nazi forces allegedly took the artwork from the Czartoryski collection, according to Polish officials.
They debuted in Madrid in 1973 and have been housed in the Pontevedra museum since 1994, when they were purchased from a Spanish private collector along with more than 300 other pieces of art.
Approximately 500,000 objects from Poland’s cultural heritage were lost or taken during the Nazi and Soviet occupations of the country during World War II.
The nation has been working to recover as much as it can.
The Culture Ministry has a division for stolen art that searches overseas collections and auctions and maintains a database of missing items.
When they discover a stolen Polish painting, book, or other item, they alert the vountry’s local police.
