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A lecture on the restitution of cultural property as part of ‘Thursdays at the Outer Bailey’
Thursdays at the Outer Bailey have returned!
The opening topic of the second half of the Thursday meetings was The restitution of movable cultural property: the case of the Malbork collections. The lecture on 24 September 2026 was delivered by Dr Bartłomiej Sierzputowski and Agata Modzolewska, employees of the Department for the Restitution of Cultural Property within the Cultural Heritage Department of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
The post-war fate of historical monuments
In their presentation the speakers briefly outlined the history of losses to Polish cultural heritage between 1939 and 1945, resulting from military operations and looting, as well as their consequences in the post-war reality. They highlighted the lack of systematic and comprehensive protection of collections immediately after the war, which today is one of the reasons for the extent of irreversible losses to Poland’s cultural heritage.
Legal basis in the process of restitution of cultural property
Polish war losses are defined as items lost as a result of the Second World War from Polish territory after 1945, constituting at the time of loss part of both public and private collections, as well as church collections. The guests discussed in detail the legal framework that currently governs the return of cultural property unlawfully transported from the territory of a Member State. These provisions stipulate that the competent authority for the restitution of cultural property carried out by the Republic of Poland is the minister responsible for culture and national heritage, and set out a list of related obligations, such as representing the State Treasury in restitution cases, taking steps to locate works of art, and establishing partnership with the relevant EU authorities on matters concerning the return of cultural property.
The Role of the Department for the Restitution of Cultural Property
The guests then outlined the key tasks carried out by the Department for the Restitution of Cultural Property, namely: documentation, search and recovery. They also emphasised the important role of the war losses database – the only nationwide register of cultural property lost as a result of the Second World War from Polish territory after 1945.
The return of historical monuments to Malbork Castle
Special attention was given to analysis of the legal status of the Malbork Castle collections. Immediately after the war, Malbork became part of the territories that Poland received as a result of the decisions of the Yalta Conference on 11 February 1945. The territorial division made at that time was confirmed by the agreements of the Potsdam Conference on 2 August 1945. Polish law finally regulated the legal status of movable cultural property located in the Recovered Territories (including Malbork) by virtue of the provisions of the decree of 8 March 1946 on abandoned and former German property.
In the remainder of the lecture, the speakers focused on presenting specific restitution cases from recent years that concerned artefacts originating from the castle. The efforts undertaken have resulted in the return to the Malbork Castle Museum of such items as stained-glass panels from the Blessed Virgin Mary at the High Castle, a great helm, an altarpiece wing from Ingeln, an antique book, as well as a crucifix and the head of a statue of St James the Elder. In this part, the guests drew attention to an important aspect – the vital role played by museums working with the Department for the Restitution of Cultural Property.
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