The triptych was part of the Cracow collection of Tadeusz Konopka (1844-1903), a wealthy owner of three land estates and a well-known art collector and artist. His collection included some ten thousand documents (dating back to 1520), manuscripts, a rich library (six and half thousand volumes, including the famous 16th century Radziwill Bible), collection of paintings, drawings (some nine hundred items from the 17th-19th centuries), weaponry, antique furniture and numerous historic memorabilia. After his death in 1903, the whole collection was inherited by his only son – Józef Konopka (1884-1940). Initially, he lived in the city of Jarosław, and later moved with his family to Warsaw. The collection was also transferred there and held in the family’s apartment. Anna – daughter of Józef – recalls that the triptych was among her father’s favorite works and was displayed in his study until 1944 when it was looted by Germans.

After the war the triptych as well as almost the whole collection was considered lost. It was established only in 2004 that the central part of the triptych was published on the internet portal, initiated and conducted by American Association of Museums (www.nepip.org), publishing objects of art from U.S. museum collections that changed hands in Continental Europe during the Nazi era (1933-1945). Thank to this searchable registry of such objects, it turned out that the panel had surfaced on the art market in Germany in 1970 and was purchased by Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

On behalf of Jozef Konopka´s sole heir, the Minis try of Foreign Affairs – through the Polish Embassy in Washington – submitted the restitution claim (with copies of archive documents) to the museum. On that basis, the Director of Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Malcolm Rogers decided to return panel Virgin and Child to its rightful owner. According to the owner´s wish, the recovered panel  has been deposited with the National Museum in Cracow, where it will be on display in the Bishop Ciolek Palace.