Japan Returns Italian Painting Stolen by Nazi Germany in 1940 to Poland

A valuable painting by Italian artist Alessandro Turchi, which was stolen from a Polish aristocrat by Nazi Germany in 1940, has been discovered in Japan and returned to Poland.

According to Kyodo, citing the Polish Embassy in Japan and a Tokyo art auction company, this is the first instance of an artwork taken from Poland during the Nazi occupation being found in the Far East. The artwork was handed over to the Polish embassy in Tokyo.

It remains unclear how the painting, titled 'Madonna with Child' by Italian Baroque artist Alessandro Turchi, came into the possession of its former Japanese owner.

According to the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the painting disappeared from public view in the 1990s after being exhibited at an auction in New York.

Mainichi Auction Inc. in Tokyo stated that it received a request from the previous owner of the painting to sell it at an auction in autumn 2021 and published its photograph on their website. The painting was valued at 3 million yen ($21,000) for auction sale.

The auction was scheduled for the end of January 2022. The Polish ministry contacted the company before the start of the auction.

Initially, Polish authorities stated that some details of the painting did not match those depicted in an old photograph of the stolen artwork. The photo was believed to have been taken in 1939 or 1940, according to the company.

Later, a group of Polish experts visited Japan to confirm the authenticity of the painting and its theft during the Nazi occupation. Ultraviolet scanning revealed that parts of the original had been painted over.

"Citizens of Poland, who highly value the 'Madonna with Child,' have once again become its owners," said Yoshiaki Onoyama, a representative from Mainichi Auction who negotiated the return of the painting with its former Japanese owner.

The largest art looting since the Nazis occurred in Ukraine during the full-scale military invasion by Russian forces in 2022-2023.

They stole tens of thousands of artworks from Ukrainian museums. In Kherson alone, over 15,000 unique artifacts were stolen during the occupation, including bronze statues from parks, avant-garde oil paintings, books, and even the 200-year-old remains of Prince Grigory Potemkin, Catherine II's favorite. Witnesses reported that the most valuable items from the Melitopol Museum of Local History, including golden artifacts from the Scythian Empire dating back to the 4th century BCE, were taken.

Art looting is prohibited by The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property, to which the Russian Federation is a signatory.