Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Ministry of Culture has been gathering data on lost cultural property from the terrain of Poland’s borders after 1945 and also takes action to recover these objects. In 1991 a government ombudsman for Polish Cultural Heritage Abroad was appointed. In accordance with the government cabinet act of 20th August 1996, the ombudsman’s task was to sign international agreements regarding the protection of Polish cultural heritage abroad, to organise searches for lost works of art and take restitutional action. In 2001, the office of attorney was abolished and the Minister of Culture took over its tasks. Currently, the work is continued by the Division for Looted Art in the Department of Cultural Heritage.

In 1998, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs appointed an Attorney for the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the resitution of cultural property, which carried out Polish-German governmental talks. In 2016, the office of attorney was abolished