With an estimated half a million works of art destroyed or stolen from Poland during the war by the Germans and Soviets, the Polish Ministry of Culture is stepping up efforts to regain some of the country’s lost heritage.
The Empty Frames campaign launched this month by Deputy Prime Minister and Culture Minister Piotr Gliński aims to remind people about works of art and cultural assets plundered from the country by its WWII German and Soviet occupiers.
Poland's Deputy Prime Minister and Culture and National Heritage Minister Piotr Gliński holds a news conference at the Museum of King John III’s Palace in Warsaw on September 14. Photo: PAP/Mateusz Marek
"Empty Frames refers to the fact that both the Germans and the Russians who were looting objects of art, often simply cut out the paintings from the frames,” said Gliński during the campaign's launch on September 14.
“To this day, in many Polish museums you can find empty frames--a symbol of the huge wartime losses Poland suffered," he added.
Radio Poland's Agnieszka Bielawska has the story.
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