The painting "Madonna under spruce" disappeared from the Wrocław cathedral in 1946-1947. Original copy replaced, and the painting was taken illegally in Berlin. In March 2012 the Polish government on the trail work, and eventually achieved its return

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Madonna under spruce
Source: msz.gov.pl

After several months of negotiations in Poland returned the canvas by Lucas Cranach the Elder" Madonna is under the spruce, "missing in the postwar years. This was reported by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its website. July 27 Cranach painting was transferred to the Cathedral of Wroclaw, for which originally was written.

«Madonna under spruce" is one of the most valuable works of art belonging to the national heritage of the Polish people. Similar works by Lucas Cranach the Elder at auction sold for 6.8 million euros.

since its writing in the beginning of the XVI century until 1943, "Madonna under the fir trees" located in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Wroclaw. In 1943, the Germans, fearing that a painting is not damaged by Allied bombing, took him first to the Cistercian monastery in Gernikove, and then to the city Klodzko. After the war the work of Cranach returned to Wroclaw.

However, in 1946-1947 the original fabric of the Cathedral of Wroclaw was quietly substituted a copy, and the painting illegally brought from Poland to Berlin, a German clergyman. In March 2012 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, was attacked on the trail of "Madonna under the spruce." Negotiations began, and, behold, a few months later, the work of Cranach returned to its rightful place.

Prepared by Mary Onuchina, AI

Source: artinvestment.ru