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.