Mezzanine Exhibition: From the Inventory of the Unfound

Valuable works were threatened in two ways: first, because they could be stolen away for money, and second, because they were labelled by the occupiers as “degenerate art,” ideologically incorrect and therefore to be destroyed.

Another threat was posed by the front passing through the city in 1945, followed by the installation of a new government, a period of confusion and chaos.

Some of the works and exhibits were taken away, some found their way to various people, others remained in storerooms at the mercy of the people and institutions managing them.

In 1945, Director Minich found the Museum building empty and ruined, but less than three years later he managed to recreate the collection in various ways, recover the works, restore them, and in 1948 exhibit them in a new space at 36 Więckowskiego Street, where they are still located today.

The Mezzanine Exhibition presents documents and photographs: traces of the presence and disappearance of works from the collection. On show are photos of exhibits, photographic prints, and several preserved pre-war photos as well as glass negatives with images of lost works from the interwar period. There are also scan images of pre-war inventories with entries regarding missing works and of documents related to their post-war fate (lists of lost works, scans of documents and press clippings regarding efforts to recover the works).

An inventory of “low-value” objects is also shown, as a reference to the wartime history of the Muzeum Sztuki as a warehouse for looted artworks.

Maciej Cholewiński

The presentation of archival materials is available daily, except Mondays and weekends, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

A ticket to the temporary exhibition at ms1 also entitles the visitor to view the presentation.

Accompanying events:

• November 23, 2023, at 18:00, mezzanine
  
  Picasso and the Master with a parrot. Collection and war losses of the Museum Sztuki in Łódź
  (PL) Lecture by Paulina Kurc-Maj and Maria Milanowska
  

• November 30, 2023, at 18:00, mezzanine
  
  In times of war, muses disappear
  (PL) Lecture by Maciej Cholewiński and Marcin Stasiewicz

More War losses in the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź

Zadanie: Straty wojenne w Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi

Dofinansowano ze środków Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego pochodzących z Funduszu Promocji Kultury - państwowego funduszu celowego, w ramach programu Badanie polskich strat wojennych