a A gilded candle sconce that was looted by the Nazis during World War II has been added to Poland’s heritage register, more than a decade after the object was returned to Poland. The Conservator of Monuments for Poland’s east-central Masovian region said in a post on social media on Monday that the object, which it says was recovered through the work of the Polish culture ministry, has been officially added to the register of monuments. The ornate wall-mounted sconce, which features the head of the Greek mythological figure Medusa, is made of chased and gilded bronze and is housed in the Palace on the Isle at the Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw. The sconce was one of a set of eight dating back to Polish King Stanisław August, who reigned in the late 18th century, and was among items looted from the Royal Łazienki by Nazi German forces and taken to Fischhorn Castle in Austria in 1944. That was not the first time it was removed from Poland, however. The sconce had been taken to Russia during World War I, according to Polish state news agency PAP, before being returned under the terms of the 1921 Treaty of Riga, which ended the Polish-Soviet War. After its looting by Nazi forces in 1944, the object eventually appeared at an auction in London in May 2009. Its owner recognized the Polish government’s claim to the sconce and agreed to its return, with the item being returned to the Palace on the Isle in 2011, PAP reported. According to the Masovian Conservator of Monuments, the object is attributed to French artist Pierre-François Feuchère and features several marks, including the initial of Russian Tsar Nicholas and an inventory number. These marks are what allowed researchers to identify the sconce and its origins, the conservator said. Only three of the eight sconces in the set found their way back to Poland in the immediate aftermath of World War II, according to the conservator. “The remaining items likely fell prey to the local population or were appropriated by Allied soldiers, who often treated the objects stored at Fischhorn Castle as ‘souvenirs,’” the conservator said.
