Ukrainian artworks moved to Poland for safekeeping may not return due to heir claims

Valuable artworks, including pieces from Lviv museums, were transferred from Ukraine to Poland at the beginning of the full-scale war to shield them from Russian bombings. These cultural treasures were placed in Polish museums for safekeeping and public display. However, a legal dispute has emerged, casting doubt on whether these artworks will be returned to Ukraine as planned.

Heirs' legal representatives have filed requests in Polish courts seeking to secure these artworks. The dispute centers on objects that once belonged to Andrzej Lubomirski's Ordynacja Przeworska, a significant estate whose legacy was partially housed in Ukraine. Currently, some of these exhibits are featured in a temporary exhibition at the Middle Pomerania Museum in Słupsk, titled "Kresy Europy – ze skarbca Lwowskiego Muzeum Historycznego" (The Borders of Europe – from the Treasury of the Lviv Historical Museum).

The exhibition, which opened on June 10 and is scheduled to run until October 18, 2026, showcases over 600 artifacts. These include not only paintings but also archaeological objects from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, alongside military items, decorative arts, and elements of Lviv's bourgeois culture. The collection also features items from the National Museum in Lublin. The exhibition is under the honorary patronage of the Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodeship and the Ambassador of Ukraine to Poland.

Among the displayed works are two portraits from the Lubomirski collection: "Portrait of Roxolana" (16th century) and "Portrait of a Young Man" by Alojzy Rejchan (1850), valued at approximately 150,000 Polish zloty. A request to secure these specific objects was filed with the District Court in Słupsk on July 20, 2026. The museum is currently reviewing the request. The heirs' legal representative stated that their intention is for the paintings, which formed the Lubomirski Museum in Lviv, a key institution of Polish culture in the 19th and interwar periods, to remain within the current borders of Poland, a claim that complicates their repatriation to Ukraine.

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The presented objects were brought to Poland as part of attempts to secure Ukrainian museum collections threatened by the ongoing war. The collection's stay in Poland guarantees its safety, while also allowing the wider public to learn about the collections that under normal circumstances can be admired in Lviv.