Lorenzo di Credi
During next month, every Wednesday and Sunday, we will show you an artwork from the database of wartime losses (www.lootedart.gov.pl) conducted by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. Due to World War II, Poland has lost over 70% of its material cultural heritage.
This painting came from the collection of Count Seweryn Mielżyński and was located in his so-called "Miłosławska Gallery" (in the palace of Miłosław). In 1874 this work, along with the Count’s whole collection, was gifted to the Poznań Society of the Friends of Science where it has been exhibited in the Mielżyńscy Museum since 1882. In 1942 the painting was deposited in the Wielkopolskie Museum in Poznań. It was inventoried by Germans in museum books in Kaiser Friedrich Museum Posen under the number 209 - the number was painted with white paint on the back of the frame and in the upper left corner of the painting. In 1943 Germans transported the work to a fortress area nearby, Sulęcin-Kahlau, and then into an unknown direction of Germany (probably eastern territories, which further belonged to Soviet occupation zone).