Straty polskich dóbr kultury podczas I wojny światowej

• Authors: Robert Kunkel

Abstracts

EN

The author’s aim is to identify certain characteristic phenomena associated with the fate of Polish historical monuments and works of art both during and after the war. The destruction of cultural property that took place during the war was only partly the direct result of military action. Long-range artillery enabled the shelling of targets invisible to gunners, the accuracy of fire controlled by observers from castle or church towers. This was why such towers were deliberately destroyed by artillery fire or blown up. On occasion, wooden churches were pulled down by soldiers in order to construct fortifications and shelters, and their furnishings stolen. Country houses and palaces abandoned by their owners and servants fell victim to robberies both by soldiers and local people. Numerous artefacts were purchased by officers and agents of Viennese or Berlin antique shops. They resurface in the art trade to this day. On Polish territory, the scorched-earth policy adopted by administrative authorities as they evacuated before the advancing front, as well as by retreating troops, in particular the Russians, led to the total destruction by fire of entire localities once various goods had been removed. Entire collections, libraries and a variety of artefacts were chaotically evacuated and stored along railway lines, where a large number were stolen. Items that owners failed to find and prove their ownership of were taken over by the Tsarist and later Soviet administration as goods abandoned and ended up in Russian museums and libraries or were sold at auctions through state-owned antique shops. The activities of Polish art historians and conservators during and after the war concentrated primarily on recovering for the reborn state collections of exceptional historical value, meaning that many other objects related to Polish culture that were looted during the war simply never returned home.

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Rocznik Historii Sztuki
• Year: 2015
• Issue: 40
• Pages: 163-175

Dates

published

2015

Contributors

author

Robert Kunkel

Identifiers

Biblioteka Nauki

707012