The long-lost Raphael will return to Poland

The "Portrait of a Young Man," missing in 1945, was found in a bank vault.

The treasure of Poland, a long-lost masterpiece attributed to Raphael’s brush, was found in one of the bank safes, the location of which has not yet been disclosed. It was assumed that the canvas was destroyed long ago.

Raphael - Portrait of a Young Man

The "Portrait of a Young Man," dating from 1513-1514, was part of the Czartoryski family collection in Krakow, and in 1939 was confiscated by the Nazis for the Nazi Führermuseum in Linz. In 1945, shortly before the end of World War II, the picture disappeared.

The press secretary of the department specializing in the return of cultural heritage, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, in his interview to domestic publications expressed confidence that the picture will return to the country. “Most importantly, the picture was not lost in the military confusion. They did not burn it and did not destroy it. She exists. She calmly waits for us in that part of the world where the law is favorable to us, ”he said, without naming a specific country. At the same time, a notice appeared on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that there was no information about where the picture was located, but the ministry continued to monitor all signals about its possible whereabouts.

“Portrait of a Young Man” is the most expensive painting for the Poles, lost during the war. The Czartoryski’s attempts to find the canvas after 1945 were complicated by the fact that Poland was behind the Iron Curtain. In 1991, the family resumed attempts to find a picture that, although it does not have official evidence, but, according to many experts, was painted by Raphael himself. Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski brought this portrait and "Girl with an Ermine" by Leonardo da Vinci (dated 1489-90) in 1798.

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