Thieves Stealing from Thieves, Victims from Victims: The Culture, Morality, and Politics of Stolen Art in Twentieth Century Poland

Abstract

Abstract The article examines the legal, moral, and political contradictions of recovering and repatriating works of art and related objects of cultural significance stolen from Poland and its neighbors during and after World War II. Poland suffered the highest rate of loss of any country occupied by Nazi Germany during the war, but a great deal of art was also taken by the Soviets, for whom art theft was a matter of policy. Art plundered by the Nazis was often re-stolen by the communists. Works were taken from both public and private owners. The losses have been compounded by the policies of postwar governments and public institutions in Poland and other countries, which have often prioritized rather vague public rights and claims for wartime compensation over the rights of individuals. In addition, governments and public institutions have lodged competing claims to specific works of art (of varying degrees of validity) against each other, making a just accounting of wartime losses nearly impossible to achieve.