"Empty Frames" campaign of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage

The Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź joined the "Empty Frames" campaign of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, which reminds us of the cultural assets lost by the Polish state during World War II.
 

The museum was opened on April 13, 1930. It was then called The Muzeum Historii i Sztuki im. Juliana i Kazimierza Bartoszewiczów. The most important part of the collection, which determined the further direction of its development, was the International Collection of Modern Art of the "a.r." group, acquired in the 1930s. After World War II, the institution was named The City Museum of Art in Łódź, and from January 1, 1950, its current name: Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź.

In the mid-1930s, the museum was reorganized into an institution dealing exclusively with art. At that time, the museum collected art from the Middle Ages to the present, with particular emphasis on contemporary times. This tendency continued after World War II, when the institution - already known as the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź - was engaged in collecting Polish and foreign art, in particular art of the 20th and now also of the 21st century.

At the end of August 1939, the then director of the museum, Marian Minich, was drafted into the army as an officer. He returned to Łódź in November 1939. The Museum was already managed by the Germans. The looting and destruction of works of art lasted approximately from July 1940 until the end of the occupation. In 1942, the museum's collections were moved to the Archaeological Museum and the Poznański Palace in Łódź. Unfortunately, their exact fate until the end of the occupation is unknown. At the end of the war, a large part of the collection was taken away from Łódź. Thanks to the post-war recovery campaign, 140 exhibits were recovered. Taking into account the over one hundred works recovered, the losses amounted to approximately 25%. collections compared to the state on August 31, 1939. They are estimated at over 230 monuments. They also include removed or destroyed library collections. Due to gaps in pre-war inventories, it is difficult to determine in detail the number of lost works.

The Museum's most valuable war losses include:

• "Guitar", Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), approx. 1914, drawing, collage, paper, 65 × 51 cm (?), war loss database number: 11942;
• "Configuration", Hans (Jean) Arp (1887–1966), 1929, relief, polychrome wood, 27 × 26 cm (?), war loss database number: 11961;
• "Sculpture" (mobile), Alexander Calder (1898–1976), n/a, metal, dimensions unknown, no. in the war loss database: 11962;
• "Multi-faceted composition", Tytus Czyżewski (1880–1945), approx. 1916, paint, cardboard, wood, 75 × 55 (?) cm, number in the war loss database: 3019;
• "Madonna with Child and a parrot against the background of a landscape, Master with a parrot", n.d./ (1525), oil, canvas, 112 × 72 cm, no. in the war loss database: 2994;
• "Annunciation", Jakub Jordaens, oil, canvas, 151 × 123 cm (153.5 × 116 cm), number in the war loss database: 2989.