Poland has agreed to return to Greece 76 Greek Jewish artifacts to be displayed in the Jewish Museum of Greece in Athens, the Greek Culture Ministry has announced.

The ministry had filed a formal request for the repatriation of the historical artifacts before Lina Mendoni, the Greek Minister of Culture who, while attending the Informal Council of EU Culture Ministers, met with her Polish counterpart Hanna Wroblewska in Warsaw to finalize the deal.

The artifacts, currently housed at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland were discovered in Lower Silesia and hold deep historical and emotional significance for Greece’s Jewish community.

“Preserving historical memory is our duty to the Greek Jewish communities, to the relatives of those murdered in the crematoria and to future generations,” Mendoni said. Acknowledging the bureaucratic challenges of a repatriation, she added that it is “very important for Greece and for the Greek Jewish community for these artifacts to be returned to their home.”

According to the ministry, the repatriation of the 76 artifacts is expected to be completed within 2025. Piotr Rypson, Poland’s Director of Cultural Heritage, and Zanet Battinou, Director of the Jewish Museum of Greece, presented the documentation for the repatriation of the artifacts to the two ministers.

Wroblewska echoed Mendoni’s sentiments about returning cultural treasures to their places of origin as an act of historical and cultural justice. She also reaffirmed Poland’s firm stance on the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles in Athens, calling for the permanent return of the sculptures to their homeland, after Mendoni seized the opportunity to raise the issue.

“We are grateful for the Polish government’s consistent backing of Greece’s request, as expressed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk during his meeting with our Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis a year ago here in Warsaw,” Mendoni said.

During the meeting, the two culture ministers also discussed the growing cultural partnership between Poland and Greece, extending beyond the repatriation to include potential exchanges in cinema, contemporary art exhibitions and craftmanship.

European Jewish Congress (EJC)