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Germany returns WW2 loot to Poland [14]
Germany has returned an 18th Century painting that was looted from Poland's National Museum by the Nazis in 1939.
The piece by Venetian artist Francesco Guardi, entitled "Palace Stairs", was taken shortly after Germany invaded.
The small painting depicts noblemen talking at the grand stairs of Venice's Doge Palace. Berlin hopes the move will revive talks over some 300,000 documents, including manuscripts by Mozart and Beethoven, that it wants to recover from Poland.
bbc/news/world-europe-26829148
There's plenty in Germany that belongs to Poland, in Poland that belongs to Germany and in Russia that belongs to both. Russia will not negotiate in the foreseeable future, but good that Germany and Poland are sorting things out. The fascinating but mostly sealed esoteric, masonic and occult collection held in the Palace at Ciążeń was seized by the pre-war German state from organisations that in many cases still exist. No German museum has any interest in it, and nor does Poland. It's all catalogued and wrapped up carefully, with a small part of the collection available to view during pre-arranged visits. But there are people who would treasure some of the artefacts.
There's also huge amounts of art round Germany and the famous Berlinka collection. Now the two countries are friendly, perhaps it's time to do some housekeeping.
