An 18th-century painting stolen by Nazis, during World War II, will return from U.S. to Poland

The work of Johann Conrad Seekatz will be transferred to the hands of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski at the ceremony on Thursday, February 6. "Another valuable painting will be returned to Poland during the ceremony at the Consulate General in New York. I would particularly like to emphasize the role of Marek Skulimowski, a former Consul in New York, in the recovery of that painting. Thank you for a great job!" - said Undersecretary of State Bogusław Winid. The ceremony will also be attended by the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in the U.S. Ryszard Schnepf, and Consul General of the Republic of Poland in New York Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka. 

The work of art, looted during World War II from the National Musuem in Warsaw, was recovered thanks to the cooperation of Polish diplomats and the federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Homeland Security Investigations (ICE/HSI). 

The painting “St. Philip baptizes the servant to Queen Candace” is an oil on copper, and shows the characteristic episode from the Acts of the Apostles. Its author was the renowned eighteenth century German artist acting, among other fuctions, as a court painter in Darmstadt. The work came from the collection of Peter Fiorentini, a Polish officer, clerk and art collector. Until the outbreak of the Second World War, the painting was exhibited in the National Museum in Warsaw. The fate of this piece of art during the war is still unknown. It can be assumed that it remained in the Museum until the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.