Nazi-Looted Cross Saved From Garbage

Medieval processional cross

Nazi-Looted Cross Saved From Garbage Returns to Heirs (Update1)  by Catherine Hickley (as reported by Bloomberg.com on May 6, 2008): 

“A medieval processional cross that was looted from Poland by the Nazis and discovered decades later in an Austrian garbage bin has been returned to the heirs of the countess who owned it before the war. The Limoges enamel cross was part of the Dzialynska collection at Goluchow Castle in Poland, according to a statement from the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, a London-based organization which helps families recover property stolen by the Nazis. The 13th-century cross features enameled plaques with images of the crucifixion and the apostles.”

This story calls to mind a 2006 visit to Krakow’s Czartoryski Museum.  The museum is world renowned for its Leonardo da Vinci Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani entitled, Lady with an Ermine.  The painting is in a room all to itself, apart from an empty frame hanging on the opposite wall.  The empty frame once held a self-portrait by Raphael that was looted by the Nazis, carried off to Germany, and never seen again.

Lady with an Ermine  by Leonardo da Vinci  

During WWII hundreds of artifacts were looted from the Czartoryski Museum, never to return.  Hanging the da Vinci by the empty frame invokes sober reflection upon human greed and the destruction wreaked by war.

Related post:  The tragic beauty of war

Related link:  Ancient Nazi-looted religious cross returned  from Reuters

~MadSilence