The marble bust of the ancient goddess Diana, looted during World War II, is back at the Palace on the Water for all to admire. On 18 December of this year, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture Piotr Gliński ceremonially handed over the bust made by Jean Antoine Houdon to the Director of the Royal Łazienki Museum Tadeusz Zielniewicz.

Produced in 1777 by the French Neoclassical sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon, the sculpture depicts the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon who often personified the night in 18^th-century symbolism.

From the late 18^th century, the Bust of Diana belonged to the collection of King Stanislaus Augustus and was on display in the Palace on the Water. The sculpture went missing from the Royal Łazienki Palace in 1940, during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Along with 56 painting from the National Museum in Warsaw, it was taken to Krakow, where the primary residence of Governor-General Hans Frank was located. From that point on, the whereabouts of the priceless sculpture remained a mystery until it recently resurfaced in a Vienna auction house upon being put up for auction by its possessor. Learning of its reappearance, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage took immediate action for the sculpture’s return. Also joining the efforts to have the sculpture returned to Poland was the Polish Embassy in Vienna and the firm Art Recovery Group. Both the Art Recovery Group and Ewa Ziembińska from the National Museum in Warsaw were awarded a distinction from the minister for their contributions to the sculpture’s recovery.

Polish Minister of Culture Piotr Gliński with Ariane Moser of the Art Recovery Group, Royal Łazienki Museum Director Tadeusz Zielniewicz and lawyer Hannes Hartung.

The priceless work of art will reassume its historic place of residence in the Dining Room of the Palace on the Water. The only other copy of Houdon’s bust of Diana resides in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.  

More information about the identyfication of the bust are available in the Valérie Roger's article.