Paintings by Jacek Malczewski, evacuated from Ukraine, are now displayed at Poznan’s National Museum. A convoy with works from the collection of the National Art Gallery of Lviv arrived in Poznań on Friday. The transport was kept secret until the end.

“The circumstances are well known, i.e. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the exhibition transport has such a character, it is evacuation”, says Dr Paweł Napierała, who took part in the convoy of evacuated works.

The cases containing 34 works by Jacek Malczewski arrived in Poznań on Friday. The date of the transport was kept secret for security reasons. On Thursday, the paintings were still at the border crossing in Hrebenne. Their transport to Poznan is a form of protection against barbaric Russian air raids.

“War causes casualties and they are mainly human beings. But artworks are also victims, and they cannot be recovered. The Hague Convention clearly states that the destruction of heritage or cultural property during war conflicts is a war crime. This needs to be made clear here and this is basically what we want to talk about too”, says Dr Paweł Napierała of the National Museum in Poznań.

The exhibition of the paintings and the cases in which they were evacuated will last until the end of March next year. As the director of the National Museum in Poznań, Tomasz Łęcki, emphasised on Friday, it is possible that the works of art from Lviv will remain in the capital of Wielkopolska longer.

“We must remember that this fast-paced project is a chance and a fantastic proposal for our visitors, but first and foremost it is an evacuation of a collection from Ukraine. We are saving our common heritage. For several months, paintings by Jacek Malczewski from the Lviv collection will look at paintings by Malczewski from the Poznan collection. They will remain in Poznan for as long as it takes. They will return to Lviv when it is safe there”, said the director of the Poznan Museum.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński