On April 5 in Warsaw, the US Embassy attended an informal reception hosted by the National Museum in Warsaw for the return to Poland of U.S. citizens and art collectors Craig Gilmore and David Crocker. Mr. Gilmore and Mr. Crocker are visiting Poland to film a documentary on their role in the repatriation of looted art to Poland and the journey of goodwill it created for the American couple. In September 2018, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage hosted a ceremony celebrating the return of the “Portrait of a Lady,” a 1628 painting that had been looted by the Nazis from the National Museum during World War II and ended up in the United States. Once Mr. Gilmore and Mr. Crocker – who had purchased the piece of art from an auction house – were notified by Homeland Security Investigations of the artwork’s troubled provenance, they kindly relinquished the painting so it could be returned to its rightful home in the National Museum in Warsaw. Representatives of the Ministry of Culture’s Looted Art Division attended the reception, as did representatives of the Association of Friends of the National Museum in Warsaw. Also in attendance were representatives of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the Campaign against Homophobia. Inspired by the outpouring of gratitude that followed their gesture last fall, Mr. Crocker and Mr. Gilmore have since begun to support the educational missions of the National Museum of Warsaw, the POLIN Museum, and the Campaign against Homophobia in the hope of building new bridges of understanding between Poland and the United States. The US Embassy would like to thank Mr. Gilmore and Mr. Crocker for their contributions to deepening people-to-people ties and promoting goodwill between our two countries.
