- Title: DENMARK: POLISH ART TREASURES ON THEIR WAY BACK FROM CANADA.
- Date: 2nd February 1959
- Summary: 1. GV Special wagon in railway siding 3 ft 2. LV Police guarding wagon. 1.5 ft 3. SV Pan Police with guard dogs. 2.5 ft 4. SV Trunk containing first of the art treasures is brought from ship. 5 ft 5. CU Trunk is loaded on to special lorry 2.5 ft 6. SV Boxes are loaded on to lorry. 2.5 ft 7. SCU Trunk being brought from ship. 3.5 ft 8. SV Boxes containing art treasures are loaded on to lorry 2.5 ft 9. SV The Polish ambassador in Denmark and four other diplomats climb into back of lorry 6 ft 10. SV The doors of the lorry are closed and locked. 3 ft 11. LV Police car leaves followed by special lorry. 6.5 ft Initials KJ/WS/RL Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 17th February 1959 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: COPENHAGEN
- City:
- Country: Denmark
- Reuters ID: LVAAP1JJYSXY95Y26J8Y5WD1HD3M
- Story Text: In Copenhagen Visnews
recently filmed the transfer of Polish art treasures from the Swedish-American
liner Stockholm to Ambassador to Denmark and other Polish officials the boxes
containing the treasures were loaded on to a lorry and taken under police
protection to the waiting vans.
These relics - including the Chopin collection, a Gutenberg Bible ancient Polish
chronicles and the coronation sword of the Polish kings - are part of the
collection brought to Canada in 1940 under the authority of the then exiled
Polish Government in London. The treasures were kept partly in the Ottawa branch
of the Bank of Montreal, partly in the Quebec provincial museum.
After negotiations with a Polish pianist in exile, the present curator of the
Warsaw Museum and one of the original custodian of the relics, the Ottawa
Government which recognises the Polish Communist Government finally decided to
return the treasures to Poland. The Duplessis Government in Quebec however has
made it quite clear that it will not give up its part of the collection as long
as there is a Communist regime in Poland. So 24 trunks remain in Quebec's
provincial museum.
In a letter published in the British press Jan 24 Polish Prime Minister in
exile, Antoni Pajak, speaks of the "undoubted fact that the Polish treasures
deposited in Canada belong essentially to the Polish people." But he raises
doubts which seem to account also for the Quebec Government's attitude when he
says: "But it does not follow that they should be released to the present rulers
of Poland. ... What would happen to these treasures if Russia decided to stage
in Poland an action similar to that of Hungary?"
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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