Before the war, the crucifix had been kept in one of the castle towers and later served as the central figure in a Crucifixion group in the Middle Castle, part of the vast medieval fortress complex at Malbork.
The work is a copy of a piece by the noted German sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider.
The sculpture was found in a private collection in Germany's southern Bavaria region and brought back through cooperation between the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Malbork Castle Museum, and the Malbork City Museum.
The trail was picked up by Tomasz Agejczyk, director of the Malbork City Museum, during research carried out under a program examining Polish wartime losses.
Experts at the Malbork Castle Museum confirmed the work’s authenticity using pre-1908 photographic documentation and a signature on the back of the sculpture by Osmar Trillhaase.
The private holder of the crucifix, who had received it in Germany many years after the war, agreed to hand it over unconditionally after reviewing the documentation.
The object was transferred to the Malbork collection on June 10.
"Every such return is a very important event in the life of our museum,” Aleksandra Siuciak, coordinator of the museum’s Losses Project, told Poland's PAP news agency. "We build the identity of this place through history."
Siuciak said the museum had long known that the object had once been intended for display in the castle interiors.
“We had a photograph confirming this location, and there was no doubt about that,” she said. “However, we were unsure about the dating, whether it was from the 19th century or an earlier period.
Direct contact with the object resolved those doubts. On the back, we discovered the sculptor’s signature, which was not visible in the photographs.”
The crucifix will now undergo detailed conservation research to assess later changes made to its structure.
"Our conservators will take care of it," Siuciak said. "The curator of the sculpture collection will carry out an analysis so that we have full knowledge of this historic object."
The return is part of a broader effort to recover cultural property lost by Poland during and after World War II.
In December, the Malbork collection also regained the 14th-century head of a figure of Saint James the Greater, once part of the decoration of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the High Castle.
The artifact was identified in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, southern Germany, and recovered through efforts by the culture ministry. It is now displayed in the castle church, in a special case below the apostle’s original torso.
The Polish culture ministry says it is currently conducting more than 200 restitution proceedings in 18 countries.
Since 2008, around 900 lost cultural objects have returned to Poland, while the Malbork Castle Museum has received more than 20 recovered exhibits since 2018.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP