FORGOTTEN HERO: JAN MORAWIŃSKI (1907–1949). PART TWO

Abstract

Having been discharged from hospital in January 1945, Jan Morawiński became a curator at a new Branch of the National Museum in Warsaw. His main task was guardianship of the collection and Palace’s preservation. On 13 January 1946, Morawiński left for Berlin’s Polish Military Mission as a specialist in restituting Polish cultural assets from Germany. Morawiński’s scope of activities covered first of all the issues of the restitution of Polish cultural assets, acquisition of Polonica from German collections, and purchase of art works. In the course of his mission he operated mainly within the British occupation zone in Germany. The Polish claims submitted by Morawiński to the British were related mainly to the Grasleben depository and the bells amassed in Hamburg. After months-long efforts, he succeeded in leaving for Hamburg in order to ascertain the presence of about a thousand bells of Polish provenance there. Furthermore, Morawiński operated within the Soviet occupation zone. In Saxony’s Nossen he discovered nine paintings which had come from Cracow. One of his greatest successes was to win the permission of the English to recover the archival resources originally from Gdansk, Elbląg, Szczecin, and Toruń. With the financing provided by the Ministry of Culture and Art he purchased, among others, the painting by Teodor Lubieniecki Family in the Park Background, a cup of Augustus II (1698), and two etchings featuring John III Sobieski. Having finished his Berlin assignment, he became head of the Polish Military Mission in the French occupation zone in Germany. In May 1949, he returned to Poland to become a Cultural Counselor at Poland’s Embassy in Rome. Morawiński died suddenly in Warsaw on 13 December 1949.