The relic in question is the Łaski Statutes, the first codification of law published in the historic Kingdom of Poland.
The initiative to return it to Poland came from Swedish lawmaker Björn Söder, a member of the Sweden Democrats parliamentary group.
In a reply to his letter, Linde referred to “a restrictive stand applied by most countries on the question of returning cultural and historical treasures looted in war time to their former owners ...”
She said that, under 17th-century international law, such spoils of war were legitimate acquisitions.
Dating from 1506, the Łaski Statutes is one of the oldest preserved Polish legal acts. In 2016, it was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World list.
Of its two extant copies, one is kept in the collections of the Central Archive of Historical Records in Warsaw. The other, kept at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, was among the many works of art and relics that were plundered during the Swedish invasion and occupation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the mid-17th century, known as the Deluge.
In his letter to Linde, Söder cited the fact that Poland was one of the first countries to ratify Sweden’s and Finland’s bids to join NATO and asked “whether in view of Poland’s concern for the security of Sweden ... the foreign ministry should not consider a goodwill gesture and come up with an initiative to return the Łaski Statutes?”
(mk/gs)