Czartoryski Museum
Renaissance palace museum holding Leonardo da Vinci's only painting in Poland, hidden and stolen through two world wars.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków opens in the office of Hans Frank, Hitler's governor of occupied Poland, where a four-hundred-year-old Leonardo da Vinci panel of a girl cradling a white ermine hung within his sight while he signed orders that sent millions of Polish Jews to their deaths. It follows the painting's flight in 1939 from the Czartoryski family's hiding place near Sieniawa, through capture, Berlin, and a return to Kraków for Frank's private display, as the war turned against him. You'll hear how Allied soldiers finally caught up with Frank at his Bavarian country house in 1945, the painting still among his belongings. Find the darkened room where she hangs today, and see where her gaze falls.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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