•  Georg Pencz (ca. 1500-1550)

Holy Trinity

Oil, board 51.3 x 39.2 cm.

The painting, attributed to the well-known Nuremberg painter Georg Pencz (one of Albrecht Dürer´s pupils), was bought by the Museum in 1880 from Wojciech Kolasiński. Prior to 1939, it was repeatedly exhibited and listed in the painting gallery catalogues of the Museum. During the occupation, it was stolen by German soldiers stationed in the building. After the war, it was included in the register of Polish losses.

It was established only in 2001 that the picture was in the collection of the Vizcaya Museum in Miami. As it turned out, it had been purchased in the late fifties in Munich.

Comparison with a pre-war photo, conducted by a specialist from the National Museum in Warsaw, confirmed the provenance of the work. A request for restitution, with copies of archive documents, was submitted by the Polish Embassy in Washington and the Honorary Consul in Miami. On that basis, the Director of Viscaya Museum, Richard S. Farwell decided to return Holy Trinity

to Warsaw. His decision was endorsed by the Museum Board and the appropriate county authorities. A final exhibition of the picture in United States was organized in late 2001. The formal handing over of the painting took place on February 4, 2002 at the Polish Consulate General in New York.

The return of the picture to Poland coincided with preparations by the National Museum of an exhibition depicting the impact of Dürer etchings on his contemporaries. The painting was one of the highlights of the exhibition.