Japan Returns Priceless Nazi-Looted 16th Century Painting to Poland

Japan handed over to Poland a 16th century Italian painting that had been looted by Nazi Germany from Poland during World War II and later discovered in Japan, Polish authorities said on May 31.

The “Madonna with Child” artwork, attributed to Italian painter Alessandro Turchi, was returned during a ceremony at Poland’s embassy in Tokyo.

Polish Culture Minister Piotr Glinski said that Japan returned it for free.

Glinski said the artwork was returned to Poland “following negotiations with the Japanese side, the auction house, Mainichi Auction Inc, as well as the person who was in possession of the painting.”

“All legal and cultural-historical arguments were accepted by the Japanese side,” he told reporters in the Polish capital city of Warsaw, The First News reported.

Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage identified the painting at an auction held in Tokyo in January 2022 and alerted the auction house, Mainichi Auction Inc., about the artwork’s identity.

Glinski implied that the process of securing the painting’s return to Poland was a challenging task.

“It was still a pandemic period, so contacts were not easy. In addition, cultural and historical issues also proved to be a barrier,” he said.

“Japan, as we know, was also an occupying power during World War II. Therefore, the situation was not simple,” the minister added.

Glinski said that authorities are planning to transfer the painting to the Lubomirski Princes’ Museum in Wrocław, which is currently under construction.

The painting is one of the 600 looted artworks that Poland has successfully repatriated. More than 66,000 items listed by the Polish ministry as lost during the war have yet to be recovered.

It comes from a collection of Poland’s 18th century aristocrat Stanislaw Kostka-Potocki. In 1823, the painting was listed among artworks belonging to another Polish aristocrat, Henryk Lubomirski. It was looted during the war and sold at a New York auction in the late 1990s.

Poland has for decades actively sought to repatriate art looted during the war by the Nazi and Soviet troops. Earlier in January, a Spanish museum returned two 15th-century paintings to Poland after experts confirmed that the artworks had been stolen by Nazi forces during World War II.

The “Mater Dolorosa” and “Ecce Homo” artworks were originally attributed to Dieric Bouts, a Flemish master born in the Dutch town of Haarlem, but now they are attributed to a member of his school or group.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.