The team overseen by the state-run Polonika National Institute of Polish Cultural Heritage Abroad has renovated a range of artworks and cultural sites, including historic monuments, places of worship and cemeteries in various countries.
The largest number of such projects took place in Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, France and the United States.
Major efforts have included the renovation of "over 1,000 square metres" of paintings by Franz Eckstein and Sebastian Eckstein at a former Jesuit church in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, the Polonika institute’s CEO, Dorota Janiszewska-Jakubiak, told the IAR news agency.
“Work was finished a few weeks ago and the paintings can now be admired in all their splendour,” she said.
She added that Polonika was also overseeing restoration work in other Polish churches in Lviv as well as at the city’s historic Lychakiv cemetery, which holds the remains of many Poles.
'Pantheon of Polish émigrés'
Elsewhere in Europe, the institute is renovating graves at the biggest Polish cemetery in France, “the pantheon of Polish émigrés” in Montmorency near Paris, IAR reported.
Projects there have included the restoration of the symbolic tomb of 19th-century Romantic bard Cyprian Kamil Norwid as Poland celebrates the 200th anniversary of the poet’s birth.
Meanwhile, finishing touches are being put to the renovated family grave of Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz, Janiszewska-Jakubiak told IAR.
Restoration work in Chicago
Another of Polonika’s major projects involves the restoration of artworks at the Polish Museum of America in the midwestern US city of Chicago, Janiszewska-Jakubiak said.
She added that many of the works on show there were originally displayed at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
Comprising a team of art restorers, historians, architects and archivists, Polonika aims to help protect Polish heritage and promote national culture worldwide.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR