Everything about The Czartoryski Museum totally explained
The
Czartoryski Museum was founded in
Kraków in
1796 by Princess
Izabela Czartoryska to preserve
Polish heritage in keeping with the Princess' motto: "The Past to the Future".
Royal collectors
The first objects in the so-called "Temple of Memory" were trophies commemorating the victory against the
Turks at the
Battle of Vienna in
1683. The Museum also features historical artifacts from the looted treasures of the
Wawel Cathedral, the Royal Castle and other objects donated by Polish noble families (
Szlachta). Izabela also bought the treasures of the
Duke of Brabant, including his books which were considered a particular highlight of the collection. Influenced by the Romantic artistic movement, she also acquired objects of sentimental significance that represented the glory and misery of human life. Among these were
Shakespeare's chair, fragments from the alleged graves of
Romeo and Juliet in
Verona, ashes of
El Cid and
Ximena from the
Cathedral of Burgos, and relics from
Abelard and
Heloise, and
Petrarch and his
Laura.
In
1798, Izabela's son, Prince
Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, traveled to
Italy and acquired
Lady with an Ermine by
Leonardo da Vinci,
Raphael's
Portrait of A Young Man, and many
Roman antiquities. However, Prince Adam Jerzy was always more a politician than an art-collector. After the failed
November Uprising in 1830 he was
exiled from
Congress Poland, then ruled by
Russian Empire. He established himself in
Paris, and in
1843 bought The
Hotel Lambert, which became both the center of operations for the exiled
Czartoryski magnate, and the Living Museum of
Poland. All the objects from the first museum were displayed in Paris.
Upon Prince Adam Jerzy's death, his younger son, Prince
Władysław, took over the museum. A born collector, he and his sister, Princess
Izabela Działyńska, expanded the collection to include: the
Polonaise carpet,
Etruscan and
Greek vases,
Roman and
Egyptian antiquities, and other types of arms and armours, as well as
Limoges enamels. At the
1865 Exposition des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, Władysław created a Polish room to exhibit the famous carpet and other parts of his collection.
Move to Kraków
In
1871, after the
French defeat in the
Franco-Prussian War, Prince Władysław packed or hid all of the artifacts and fled. In
1874, the city of
Kraków offered him the arsenal in the Old Wall as a museum, which he called upon
Violet-le-Duc to renovate, who in turn delegated the project to his son-in-law
Maurice Ouradou. In
1878, one hundred years after Princess Izabela set up her museum in
Puławy, the new museum, as it's seen today, was opened. Prince Wladyslaw continued to add items to the collection for the next twenty years, until his death in
1894.
Władysław's son, Prince
Adam Ludwik, then carried on the work of his father. In
1897 he took over the
Sieniawa Ordynacja property from the Emperor
Franz-Joseph. At that point his capital assets were estimated at 4.5 million
Austrian Crowns, not including the Collections. In
1899, Adam Ludwik's aunt Izabela bequeathed the
Goluchow Estate, with all the collections that she'd bought with her beloved brother Władysław, to her two nephews, and Prince Adam Ludwik cared for both Museums.
To Dresden and back
He then travelled to
Japan and acquired the vases and bronzes still displayed today at the Goluchow Castle. In
1914, he was called up to the Austrian Army and his wife Princess
Maria Ludwika Krasinska took over the Museum, taking most of the important artifacts (52 paintings, 12 carpets, 35 folders of prints and drawings, and works by
Leonardo da Vinci,
Raphael, and
Rembrandt) to
Dresden because of her connections with the Royal Saxon Family. These works garnered great interest, with the collection being open to the public two days a week.
In
1918, after the war, Hans Posse, Director of the royal collections, was unwilling to return the collection. He was fearful of the unrest in
Poland. However, after two years of negotiation, all objects were recovered and transferred to the Family Museum in
Kraków in 1920. The signing of the
1921 Treaty of Riga provided for the return of all looted or confiscated objects during
tsarism due to the
Bolshevik revolution.
In
1931 a large number of important books, archives and objects that had been taken from
Puławy in
1831 immediately after the
November Uprising were also returned, though most of these were placed in various national depositories.
In
1937, after Prince Adam Ludwik's death, his son Prince
Augustyn, took over as head of the family. He married Princess
Dolores Victoria Maria de las Mercedes de Borbon y Orleans and spent most of his time in Poland. Then, in August
1939, Europe was thrown into turmoil with the events of
World War II, and the museum was forced to prepare for war. Sixteen cases packed with the most precious objects were transported and stored in Sieniawa, while the rest of the collection was carried down to the cellars of the museum, where unfortunately the Germans found the cases and looted the tradable objects. Luckily, although the Leonardo and other pictures were roughly handled, they were not damaged.
Closure of the museum
On
September 22,
1939, Prince Agustyn removed what remained of the treasures and took them to his cousin's property in
Pewkinie. However, soon afterwards the
Gestapo found the cases and took them back to Krakow, though not to the museum. On
January 25,
1940, the final selections of the 85 most important items from the Museum were sent to Dresden where Dr. Posse,
Hitler's plenipotentiary, decided that all objects were to be part of the Fuhrer's own Collection at Linz. From that moment the museum, whose curator was to die in a concentration camp, was closed to the public.
In
1945, Dr.
Hans Frank, German governor of Poland and personal friend of Hitler, brought the paintings from
Berlin for his own use at the
Wawel Castle. But when the Germans evacuated Krakow in January, he took the paintings with him to
Silesia and then to his own villa in
Neuhaus. The Americans arrested Dr. Frank on May 4, and the Polish representative at the Allies Commission for the Retrieval of Works of Art claimed the stolen paintings on behalf of the Czartoryski Museum. However, the Raphael and 843 other artifacts were missing from the collection.
Reopening after WWII
After the Second World War, the museum was reopened and run by the communist government. Although the economical situation was desperate, the museum survived thanks largely to the work of Professor
Marek Rostworoski, who dedicated his life to the collection. In
1991, the High Court of the Nation returned the Museum to its rightful owner, Prince
Adam Karol Czartoryski, along with the library housed in a nearby building.
Today the Museum is administered by the
Princes Czartoryski Foundation set up by Prince Adam Karol in 1991. It welcomes more than 12,000 visitors a year, and has organized exhibitions in
Italy (Rome-Milan-Florence),
Sweden (Malmö-Stockholm),
Turkey (Istanbul), and
Japan (Kyoto-Nagoya-Yokohama). In autumn
2002, The
Lady with an Ermine was featured at the
Milwaukee Art Museum's tribute to the splendour of Poland. The portrait and other items from the Collection also went on to
Houston and
San Francisco throughout
2003.
Image:The_Lady_with_an_Ermine.jpg|Lady with an Ermine, by Leonardo da Vinci
Image:Raphael missing.jpg|Raphael's Portrait of a Young Man was looted in 1939 and is still missing.
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