The ring of King Sigismund I the Old – illegally detained by german museum in Pforzheim

In March 2023, the Polish side filed a request for the return of the stolen ring. 3 years later and Germany still didn’t respond. We should speak directly and loudly how fencing of stolen things is normalized in Germany. Especially because Germans for years had no problems with attaching stereotypes of thieves to us.

A fragment from Rzeczpospolita article: https://historia.rp.pl/historia/art42564701-zrabowany-pierscien-krola-zygmunta-starego-w-niemieckich-rekach

EN: The ring of King Sigismund I the Old, stolen by German soldiers during World War II, is in a German museum. Poland is trying to return a priceless souvenir that is part of the so-called Izabela Czartoryska’s royal casket.

The information was confirmed to us by Piotr Jędrzejowski, press spokesman for the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. – In March 2023, we submitted a restitution application regarding the ring of King Sigismund I from the collection of Princess Izabela Czartoryska to the management of the Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim. In October 2024, through the Polish embassy in Berlin, we also sent an application to the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ministry’s spokesman informs “Rz”.

– Each case of lost cultural property and its chances of return is analyzed individually, regardless of whether it is in private or public collections. In the case of restitution, the reconstruction and assessment of the history of a given object is extremely important. We are using all available legal mechanisms to return the facility to Polish territory – added Piotr Jędrzejowski.

We sent an e-mail to the management of the jewelry museum Schmuckmuseum in Pforzheim (a city in Baden-Württemberg) asking whether they are willing to return this ring to the Polish museum and how it ended up in the collection. We have not received a response yet.

If the ring was returned, it would go to the National Museum in Krakow. This is the result of the sale agreement of the Czartoryski collection, which was signed in December 2016. In addition to the collection, the museum then acquired the rights to all works of art from Izabela’s collection that have not yet been found.

The fate of the royal ring was first described by prof. Ewa Letkiewicz, art historian from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. Interestingly, she published a scientific article in 2007 in the Art History Bulletin. In it, she recreated the fate of jewelry found in the collections of the German Schmuckmuseum.

According to her, the ring came to the collection of this institution in 1963 along with 179 other historic rings previously belonging to the collector Heinz Battke. Interestingly, prof. Letkiewicz discovered that in the early 21st century, the ring was exhibited for some time by a German museum in Częstochowa, which is Pforzheim’s sister city.

ENG: The ring of King Sigismund I the Old, stolen by German soldiers during World War II, is in a German museum. Poland is seeking the return of the priceless heirloom, part of the so-called royal casket of Izabela Czartoryska.

Piotr Jędrzejowski, spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, confirmed this information to us. "In March 2023, we submitted a restitution application regarding King Sigismund I’s ring from Princess Izabela Czartoryska’s collection to the management of the Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim. In October 2024, through the Polish Embassy in Berlin, we also submitted the application to the German Museum of Art," a spokesperson for the Ministry told Rzeczpospolita.

"Each case of lost cultural property and its chances of return is analyzed individually, regardless of whether it is in private or public collections. In the case of restitution, the reconstruction and assessment of the history of the object in question are crucial." We are pursuing all available legal mechanisms to return the item to Polish territory," added Piotr Jędrzejowski.

We have emailed the management of the Schmuckmuseum jewelry museum in Pforzheim (a city in Baden-Württemberg) asking if they would be willing to return the ring to the Polish museum and how it came to be included in the collection. We have not yet received a response.

If the ring is returned, it will go to the National Museum in Krakow. This is stated in the sale agreement for the Czartoryski collection, signed in December 2016. In addition to the collection, the museum acquired the rights to all works of art from Izabela’s collection that have not yet been recovered.

The fate of the royal ring was first described by Professor Ewa Letkiewicz, an art historian from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. Interestingly, she published a scholarly article in the Art History Bulletin in 2007. In it, she reconstructed the fate of the jewelry that had ended up in the collections of the German Schmuckmuseum.

She believes that the ring arrived in that institution’s collection in 1963, along with 179 other antique rings previously belonging to the collector Heinz Battke. Interestingly, Professor Letkiewicz discovered that in the early 21st century, the ring was temporarily exhibited by the German museum in Częstochowa, which is a twin city with Pforzheim.