Gabriel Narutowicz, the first elected president of independent Poland, was murdered by the little-known artist and critic Eligiusz Niewiadowski at the Zachęta Art Gallery in Warsaw on 16 December 1922. Narutowicz had been elected by the Polish Sejm, or National Assembly, just a week before and sworn in on 11 December. As a Swiss-educated, technocratic liberal who had garnered just sixty-two of the 545 available votes in the first round, he was an unlikely victor, but Count Zamoyski, Poland’s largest landowner and candidate of the right, who led in the first four rounds of voting, persistently failed to achieve a majority. This reflected the fissures running through Polish society. Piast, the peasant party (to adopt Brykczynski’s usage), eventually voted with the socialists and the National Minorities’ Bloc because Zamoyski and the National Democrats (Endecja) would not agree a programme of significant land reform. Just a few weeks later, the same voting coalition elected Stanisław Wojciechowski, the preferred candidate of Piast, as Narutowicz’s successor. This outcome has led historians to play down the long-term significance of Narutowicz’s assassination, suggesting that it ultimately led to a defeat for the right, and helped secure Poland’s parliamentary democracy.