Prawo do dziedzictwa kultury a własność dzieł sztuki i zabytków
The Right to Cultural Heritage and the Property of Art Objects

Summary/Abstract: One of the crucial problems with a negative impact on Polish-German relations is the dilemma who owes what to whom regarding works of art and monuments deliberately destroyed or taken out of Poland during the German occupation of 1939-1945, as well as those left behind by Germans in Silesia and Pomerania. The issue involves the restitution of physically existing objects as well as compensation damages for losses due to intentional acts. The author draws attention to a lack of precise definition of the concept of cultural heritage, which comprises equally material objects, spiritual and mental phenomena as well as values significant for the identity and continuity of political, social and cultural development, establishment of historical truth and commemoration of historical events, cultivation of the sense of beauty and common civilization. He also emphasizes that expressions such as ‘‘historical and artistic value’’ often camouflage the actual though hard to assess material value of works of art. This pertains as well to property that is not tantamount to items of cultural heritage that would thereby allocate responsibility to make compensation damages on the part of perpetrators who carried out the directives of the Nazi authorities to totally destroy Polish culture. Finally, he mentions that the lack of implementation of treaty regulations by parties to the contract resulted in a document which is an initiative of people not connected with state administration. It is called: The Gdańsk Charter for the Protection of Heritage which is an attempt to solve the problems of restitution of the treasures of culture on grounds of rightness and justice, so necessary today at the time of rapprochement between the member states of the European Union.

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