On 28th February 2014 the Hollywood film, The Monuments Men, was released in cinemas in Poland. The star cast, including George Clooney, describe the fortunes of a group of art historians who enter the war to save works of world culture from destruction in the war.

In actual fact the Monuments men was a group of 350 men and women from 13 countries, who generally volunteered to serve in the MFAA (Monument, Fine Arts and Archives) which was founded in 1943. The MFAA was set up to save works of international renown from destruction in the war. At first, the aim was to reduce the destruction, mostly devastation of churches, museums and other important monuments. Later, after crossing the German border, the unit’s soldiers mostly tried to establish the location and recovery of works of art and cultural property stolen by the Nazis from all regions of Europe. It is important to highlight that during the occupation, the Nazis transported over 5 million works of art.

It is worth noting that there was one pole in the group, Karol Estreicher jr. From the beginning of the Second World War, he was deeply involved in the protection of cultural property. In September 1939, the young Cracovian art historian organised the evacuation of figures from the Wit Stwosz altarpiece in the mariacki church in Cracow. Soon afterwards he headed to France via Hungary. There, and later in London, as secretary to the Polish Prime Minister-in-exile, General Wladyslaw Sikorski, he got involved in estimating Polish wartime losses under the German occupation. He led an 8 man team called the Office for Reclamation of Wartime Losses within the ministry of Congressional Work in London. Together with his colleagues, he collected information sent by courier by archivists, curators and librarians from within the occupied homeland and sent it in report form to the allied governments in the west. The first report was written at the beginning of 1940 and referred to losses caused by German occupying forces in 1939. From November 1942 to April 1943, Estreicher travelled to the USA, making great effort to describe the tragedy of Poland to the allies. His reports referring to German looting of Polish works of art were one of the factors in the decision to found the MFAA. The final effect of the work was the publication, in Polish and English, of the 500 page book called Cultural Losses of Poland,  in 1944 (edited by K. Estreicher). It is a catalogue of Polish cultural losses during the German occupation from 1939-1944. Apart from documentary activities, he also took part in the evacuation of treasures of Polish culture from occupied Paris to England. Using the hold of a coal transporter, called  “Chorzow”, Estreicher transported a series of tapestries from Wawel castle , which had been collected by King Zygmunt August and the most precious objects from the Wawel treasury, including the coronation sword.

Thanks to the perseverance and courage of Karol Estreicher, it was possible to recover the Wit Stwosz Altarpiece, the Jagiellonian collection and paintings from the Museum of the Czartoryski princes, including “The lady with an Ermine” by Leonardo da Vinci. He got all of these treasures back to Poland in 26 wagons of a train he requisitioned in Munich.