Monika Grütters “has finally refused to sign the appeal despite previously declaring twice that she would do so,” Polish Deputy Culture Minister Magdalena Gawin has been quoted as saying in a press interview.

The news came after Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Culture Minister Piotr Gliński came up with a plan for such a joint appeal when the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II was commemorated earlier this year, a Polish news website, tysol.pl, has reported.

It quoted Poland’s Gawin as saying in the media interview that “this would’ve been an important appeal because often the Germans themselves do not know what exactly was plundered at the time.”

She added that “such joint appeals usually produce positive results,” according to tysol.pl.

Gawin has told the Polska The Times newspaper that, despite efforts by a special team within the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage that is tasked with recovering looted artwork, the official list of Poland’s wartime losses still comprises some 60,000 items.

She added that with each year more valuable paintings, antique prints, sculptures and other artifacts stolen during the German occupation were being brought back into the country thanks to the work of many people at home and abroad.

Gawin also said, as quoted by the onet.pl news website, that her ministry would not give up efforts to recover masterpieces including Portrait of a Young Man, a painting by Raphael that is believed to have been stolen by the Germans from Poland during World War II.

(gs/pk)

Source: tysol.pl, onet.pl