Medieval crucifix found in Austrian rubbish skip

[Timbers]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070816/ts_nm/austria_cross_dc

VIENNA (Reuters) - An 800-year-old, gold-plated crucifix that went missing after being seized by the Nazis has been found in a rubbish skip in Austria, police said.

The crucifix, made of copper and enamel, was crafted in Limoges, France, and was part of a Polish art collection brought to Austria during Nazi rule, Josef Holzberger, police spokesman in Salzburg, said on Thursday.

It was found in 2004 in the lakeside winter resort of Zell am See by a woman combing through a skip filled with the discarded possessions of a neighbor who had just died.

"The lady had a soft spot for old crockery and was rummaging for plates when she found the crucifix," said Holzberger. "She asked the deceased's family, and they said she could have it."

Last month the woman showed the crucifix to a friend who realized it might be something special and took it to a museum.

In the run-up to World War Two, the owners of the crucifix had hid it and other treasures by walling them inside the basement of a house in Warsaw.

They were discovered by the Nazis in 1941, brought to the Polish National Museum and later transferred to a castle in the Austrian village of Bruck an der Grossglocknerstrasse, near Zell am See, police said.

"We lost track of what happened then -- we don't know how the crucifix ended up in Zell am See," Holzberger said.

The crucifix might be worth up to 400,000 euros ($539,000) at auction. Poland's culture ministry has contacted the London-based Commission for Looted Art in Europe, which represents the heirs of former art collectors, Holzberger said.

 

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[kenb]

Update.

Polish Count Claims Medieval Cross

Thursday August 23, 2007 1:01 AM


By RAPHAEL G. SATTER

Associated Press Writer

LONDON (AP) - A Polish count laid claim Wednesday to a medieval cross fished out of a trash container in Austria, saying it had been stolen from his family by the Nazis.

Count Adam Zamoyski, the chairman of a Warsaw museum, said photographic and archival evidence left no doubt that the cross was the one held by his ancestors at the Goluchow Castle in Poland before World War II.

The item was found by a woman rooting through the discarded belongings of a deceased hotel owner in western Austria in 2004, but it was not until last month that it was taken to an Austrian museum for valuation and safekeeping.

Experts estimated that the medieval French cross could be worth S$500,000. But Zamoyski told The Associated Press neither he nor the other heirs to the treasure would sell it, saying his ancestors wanted the cross on public display.

``Ultimately we intend to take it back to Poland and place it on show, because that was the aim of the collection,'' he said.

He said the cross was acquired by his relatives, the Czartoryski family, in the 19th century, but was among the thousands of pieces of art plundered by the Nazis during World War II. Zamoyski, who now serves as chairman of the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, where the family's collection is kept, has spent years tracking the missing artwork across Europe and the United States.

Zamoyski said he didn't know how long it would take to retrieve the cross. The Commission for Looted Art in Europe, which the count said was handling the effort to have the cross returned, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

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Associated Press Writers Ryan Lucas and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland contributed to this report.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6869675,00.html

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