Count’s treasures of Drohobychyna

The Taras Shevchenko National Museum launches the exhibit “Treasures of Count Lanckoronski” from the collection of the Drohobychyna Museum. The scho-larly restoration is timed to the 70th anniversary of the museum. The exhibit will be open till October 30. It includes paintings, graphical works, ceramic works, icons, polychrome sculptures, old prints, textile, metal goods, and pieces of furniture restored by the experts of the National Scientific Research Center of Ukraine. According to the organizers, the residents and guests of Kyiv would also be able to see the restoration process (one of the halls is dedicated to museum restoration).

As a reminder: Karol Lanckoronski (1848-1933) was a Polish aristocrat. A lawyer by education, he was an archeologist by calling, an art historian and expert of Italian Renaissance. Count Lanckoronski gathered a collection of works of art which impressed with its richness and was considered Austria-Hungarian Empire’s third largest. The collector preserved his treasures in a specially built palace in Vienna and summer residence in Rozdil (Lviv oblast). Before the World War I he brought the most precious items to his Viennese palace. In 1939 Gestapo requisitioned the Lanckoronski collection. They planned to add the best paintings to Hitler and Goering’s collections. In 1945 Bormann ordered to destroy the treasures which were brought to the abandoned gallery near Salzburg, but the officer (an Austrian by nationality) didn’t execute the order, having not blasted the gallery. After the war Anton Lanckoronski, the count’s son and his schoolmate Prince Lichtenstein brought the rescued collection to Switzerland. In 1994 the last Lanckoronski, Countess Karolina, granted the family collections to Polish museums: Royal Castle in Warsaw and Wawel Royal Castle in Krakow. The works from Rozdil collection are being preserved now at the Drohobychyna Museum. The best items of this collection are feasting people’s eye at the Kyiv exhibit.