At a glance:

• No national laws, policies, or guidelines for repatriation
• Poland are mainly focused on securing the return of items to Poland that were lost during the Second World War
• No meaningful or established way to approach repatriation at the moment

Jump to:

1. Overview
2. How to find collections and make a claim

Overview

Poland has no national law or policy for repatriation.

It’s estimated that Poland lost 70% of its tangible cultural heritage during the Second World War. Much of their work continues to be securing the return of items to Poland.

Some Polish academics have remarked that Poland has been holding onto everything they have in their museums because they lost so much during the war.

Amy Shakespeare

There is another issue in Poland, in that most historic museum documentation was destroyed or lost in the 1930s and 1940s, which means provenance research is incredibly challenging.

However, there are signs that things are changing. Poland is trying to re-examine how it benefitted from colonialism in the past, and the impact this had on institutions like museums. This discussion is going to grow over the next few years, and the younger generation of Polish museum professionals have different views to what has come before – perhaps because of this new focus on the country’s historic relationship with colonialism.

How to find collections and make a claim

Not all museums have their collections information online. However, museums should be open to providing information about what collections they have if you get in touch with the relevant Curator or Director to ask. Try to utilise the museum website to find the relevant person to contact for information on their respective collections.

When making initial contact, it is best not to say that you are looking to make a claim. It can be helpful to take a more diplomatic approach, mentioning repatriation at a later stage when you have built a relationship with the museum.

Some have heard that the Ministry of Culture has said they are open to collaborating on claims, and that decisions would be made based on international codes of conduct. If there was enough provenance, the Ministry may decide to return ancestors and cultural belongings – although this is not recorded anywhere.

Amy Shakespeare

Museums would not proactively undertake repatriation at the moment, but if there is a claim with evidence of provenance then they might take it to the Ministry. Any return from Poland would have to be approved by the ministry. For this reason, it would be helpful to have national government or embassy involvement.