WAR LOSSES: A THREE-VOLUME PUBLICATION OF THE MUSEUM OF GDAŃSK

Abstract

Released in three separate volumes, the publication continues the Polish museology series published for several years now and related to the losses incurred as a result of WW II within the borders of today’s Republic of Poland. The Preface to Volume I on the war losses of the Town Hall of the Main City of Gdańsk by the Director of the Museum in Gdańsk Waldemar Ossowski, contains reflections essential for the discussed issue. The three-volume series opens with the War Losses of the Town Hall of the Main City of Gdańsk (Vol. I). Briefly, the most essential facts have been highlighted in the story of its raising, and the functions of the major Town Hall interiors, both sumptuous and serving as offices, have been described: the Grand Hallway, the Grand Room called Red or Summer Room, the Small Room of the Council called Winter Room, the Grand Room of the City Council, the Treasury, and the Deposit Room. In the final months of WW II, Gdańsk lost about 80% of its most precious historic substance within the Main City. As early as in April 1945, the search for and the recovery of the dispersed cultural heritage began. War Losses of the Artus Manor and the Gdańsk Hallway in Gdańsk (Vol. 2) begins with a sepia photograph from 1879. As of October 1943 to January 1945, the following took place: dismantling together with signing and numbering of the objects, packing into wooden chests, and evacuation to several localities outside Gdańsk. It has already been ascertained that as early as in mid-June 1942, some dozen of the most precious historic monuments were evacuated from the Artus Manor, of which several items have not been recovered: late- -mediaeval paintings (Boat of the Church, Siege of Marienburg, Our Lady with Child, and Christ, Salvator Mundi), several elements from the four sets of tournament armours from the section of the Brotherhood of St Reinold, the sculpture Saturn with a Child, the sculpture group Diana’s Bath and Actaeon’s Metamorphosis, as well as some dozen elements of the décor of the Grand Hall. All these historic pieces were transferred to the village of Orle (Germ. Wordel) on the Sobieszewo Island on 16 June 1942. Only fragments of tournament armours have been recovered: they were found at various locations under the circumstances hard to clarify many years later. The most extensive war losses have been presented for the Uphagen House (Vol. 3). The majority of the gathered art works, the interior equipment and usable objects essential in the burgher’s tenement house transformed into a museum in the early 20th century have not been found, thus they have not returned to their original location.