New Light on Old Treasures

This article examines two aspects of the prolonged sojourn in Canada of Polish artistic and historical treasures from their arrival in 1940 until their repatriation in 1960–1961. Part One, “A Tale of Two Curators,” examines contrasting evaluations of the character and contributions of the two Wawel curators, Stanisław Świerz Zaleski and Józef Krzywda Polkowski, who took sharply different paths after the war. Part Two, “Quebec, the Church, and the Polish Treasures,” shows that the Quebec Catholic Church played a leading role in keeping the treasures in Canada until 1960–1961.