WILANÓW WORKS OF ART IN THE GERMAN CATALOGUE SICHERGESTELLTE KUNSTWERKE IM GENERALGOUVERNEMENT

Before the outbreak of WW II, the works of worldart collected at the Wilanów Palace were considered to bethe largest private collection in the Polish territories. Just thevery collection of painting featured 1.200 exhibits. Apart fromthem the Wilanów collection contained historic furniture, oldcoins, textiles, artistic craftsmanship items, drawings, andprints, pottery, glassware, silverware, bronzes, sculptures,as well as mementoes of Polish rulers. Already in the firstweeks of the German occupation, assigned officials selectedthe most precious art works from the Wilanów collections,and included them in the Sichergestellte Kunstwerke imGeneralgouvernement Catalogue. The publication presentedthe most precious cultural goods secured by the Germansin the territory of occupied Poland. It included 76 items: 29 paintings and 47 artistic craftsmanship objects. In 1943,the majority of the works included in the quoted Cataloguewere transferred to Cracow. A year later, the most valuableexhibits from Wilanów were evacuated to Lower Silesia. Whatremained in Cracow was only a part of the collection relocatedfrom Wilanów. The chaos of the last weeks preceding thefall of the Third Reich caused that many art works from theWilanów collection are considered war losses. Among manyobjects, included in the above Catalogue, there are severalWilanów paintings: Portrait of a Man by Bartholomeus vander Helst, Portrait of a Married Couple by Pieter Nason,Allegory of Architecture, Painting, and Sculpture by PompeoBatoni, Allegorical Scene in Landscape by Paris Bordone, andThe Assumption of Mary by Charles Le Brun.