Matelski D. Grabież i restytucja polskich dóbr kultury: od czasów nowożytnych do współczesnych. Tom 1-2

Przedmowa i red. Zbigniew Kazimierz Witek. — Kraków: Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Sztuk Pięknych, 2006. — 1287 s. — ISBN 8388121863The book includes seven chapters, an introduction and conclusions. It is divided into two parts: the first one consists of „preliminary remarks” and chapter one and contains a general definition of the scope of research, a review of historiographic resources and a series of remarks on restitution issues in international relations (chapter one). The other part of the book, corresponding to chapters three to eight, describes many centuries of Poland’s efforts aimed at the restitution of lost cultural property. The chronology of these chapters is in keeping with caesuras commonly used in Polish historiography. Chapter two presents Polish restitution efforts during the Commonwealth of the Two Nations (up to 1795). The fate of Polish cultural property during the partitions period (1795-1918) and the search for them are described in chapter three. The next chapter presents Polish restitution measures taken by the 2nd Polish Republic (1918-1939), and chapter five describes the losses caused during World War 2 and recovery attempts of Polish authorities. The last two chapters are related to the post-war period. In chapter six, the author’s attention is focused on the activities undertaken by the authorities of People’s Republic of Poland and by Polish cultural institutions aimed at reclaiming cultural property seized by Germans during the war, as well as their revendication or re-evacuation from occupation zones of Germany and Austria, USSR, Czechoslovakia, GDR, France and Canada. Part of this chapter is also devoted to the reproduction of archive resources from other countries. Chapter seven concentrates on the negotiations of Polish authorities after 1989 with Poland’s neighboring countries and the United States.
Furthermore, this chapter contains an overview of the fate of foreign cultural property which stay in Poland as a result of World War 2, as well as the efforts of their respective owners aimed at their revendication, reproduction or extradition. The problems related to the cultural property belonging to Holocaust victims are also discussed. A discursive paper - Polish Restitution Plans - constitute the final part of the book. An overview of the results of research and queries is presented in the final remarks.