•  Jacob van Walscapelle (artist active in 1665-1718)

Flowers in a Glass Vase

Oil, canvass 76 x 61.5 cm.

The painting was purchased on April 19 th 1935 by the City Board of Warsaw (at the initiative of Mayor Stefan Starzyński) from the collection of

Dr Jan Popławski for the National Museum in Warsaw. The following year,

the painting was presented at the Museum in a exhibition presenting the latest acquisitions.

The painting was stored at the Museum until 1944, when it was looted by the Germans. After the war, it was listed in the Catalogue of Paintings Removed from Poland by the German Occupation Authorities during the years 1939-1945.Vol. 1. Foreign Paintings. Until the late nineties, its whereabouts were unknown.

In 1998, a resident of the United States offered a painting described as Bouquet of Flowers in a Glass Vase to Sotheby's. That decision may have been prompted by the fact that a comparable painting by Walscapelle had fetched over a million US dollars at a New York auction. However, Sotheby's informed the owner about the true origin of the work, sending him an illustration from the Polish catalogue of war losses. Therefore, there was no doubt as to the identity of the painting in question. The owner, who still prefers to remain anonymous, decided to return it to the National Museum.

The relevant talks were extremely protracted and started making progress only after the involvement of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its diplomatic staff in the United States. It was agreed that the painting would be brought to the Polish Consulate in New York and handed over to the Polish side. After it was returned to Warsaw on 8 th April 2001, Minister of Foreign Affairs Władysław Bartoszewski handed the painting over to the National Museum.