The note reports on the outcry in the Polish press over the desire of the Vilnius curia to sell abroad the antique tapseries held in the vault of the Archcathedral Basilica of St Stanislaus the Bishop and St Ladislaus in Vilnius. The sale was supposedly motivated by a lack of funds for the ongoing renovation of the church. Ultimately, this sale did not take place, and the tapestries are now in the Museum of Sacred Heritage in Vilnius. Information from the periodical 'Sztuki Piękne',1933, no. 5, pp. 199-200 (public domain, reprinted from the Library of the University of Silesia, Katowice).

A modernised reading of the text

The Vilnius press launched a fierce campaign on the sale of the tapestries, highlighting an extremely sensational detail. Here, as they write, while talking about the necessity of selling the tapestries in the face of a lack of money to save the basilica, at the same time it turned out that the Vilnius clerical authorities had a few days ago bought a large tenement house of Mrs Hutten Czapska in Vilnius Street for 320,000 zlotys. The act of purchase and sale was registered in the notarial records under number 207 with one of the notaries at the District Court. The news of this unusual discovery, of course, caused great amazement and comment in the city.

More extensive articles on the artistic and historic value of the endangered tapestries also began to appear, citing the expert opinion of the well-known art historian and author of studies on Jagiellonian tapestries, Prof. Dr. Marian Morelowski. Such an article also appeared, among others, in the 'Gazeta Polska' (of 26 I this year), and in the same daily (no. 33), Prof. Miecz. Limanowski, stating that "the Sapiehs' foundation has become a national asset and therefore the matter of the tapestries cannot be merely a matter for the chapter or the curia.

These tapestries are without price. It is no longer only the elite that understands this, the masses in the nation are beginning to understand it too". In No. 32 of the "Il. Kurjer Codz.", J. Sz. included the following comments:

"Threatened by the necessity of interrupting the renovation work around the protection of the Vilnius Basilica from a building disaster, the Vilnius Metropolitan Curia decided to obtain the fund needed for further work from the sale of 10 priceless 17th century tapestries stored in the Cathedral treasury. Since finding a buyer in the country today is unlikely, if not impossible, the only serious recruit for the Vilnius tapestries could only be from abroad. For these reasons, Archbishop Jałbrzykowski has decided to sell them on some foreign antiquarian market, and has already obtained the necessary permission to export the cathedral tapestries abroad (!)".

To get an idea of the enormity of the loss that Poland would suffer if the priceless Vilnius tapestries were sold into foreign hands, it is enough to listen to the authoritative opinion of Prof. Dr. Morelowski, a distinguished and respected art historian, who defined very strictly the extraordinary historical and artistic value of the tapestries from the cathedral treasury. "The treasury of Vilnius Cathedral preserves 10 tapestries of very considerable size, dating from the second half of the 17th and early 18th centuries. They all come from one of the most splendid eras of the heyday of the South Dutch art industry. They were almost all made in the famous Brussels factories, or represent the schools most closely related to Brussels (Lille, Audenarde).

Artistic fabrics from the southern Dutch mills have always been highly valued and extremely sought after, all the more so because the cartons used as models for the Brussels tapestries were prepared by the most eminent painters of the era. The Vilnius tapisseries are not of uniform size. The largest of them, five metres long and woven according to L. de Hondt's carton, depicts a battle scene superbly composed against a magnificent landscape. It is the most beautiful and valuable of the Vilnius tapestries. Other tapestries are three to four metres long and fall into two groups.

The first group includes three tapestries, created around 1660 in the famous Brussels workshops of Jacob van der Zeunem, according to cartons by Abraham van Diepenbeeck. They depict scenes from the lives of David and Solomon and hunting scenes. In the second group (late 17th and early 18th century), we have six tapestries depicting mythological scenes from the life of Apollo, cast against the magnificent backdrop of the mighty trees of the mythical landscape.

The cathedral tapestries thus represent simply priceless values in the Polish inventory of artistic monuments. It is unthinkable that such a national treasure should fall into foreign hands. However, any doubts about this were dispelled by Archbishop Jałbrzykowski himself, who declared to a delegation from the presidium of the Council of Vilnius Artistic Associations that, pressed by necessity, he would sell the tapestries, despite protests. He will treat this as a last resort, but is nevertheless determined not to give in under any pressure when it comes to saving the Vilnius Basilica, which is threatened with disaster. We know that the Archbishop, in his noble concern for the well-being and future of a jewel so dear to the whole of Poland as St Stanislaus Cathedral, will not shrink from the painful finality of sacrificing for this purpose a lesser jewel, which is undoubtedly the tapestries from the cathedral treasury. But will this finality save the basilica? Certainly not! The severe economic downturn, which is being experienced abroad as much as we are, and the related bad economic situation on foreign antiquarian markets, does not allow the magnificent Vilnius tapestries to be positioned favourably.

The amount obtained from the sale will certainly bear no relation either to the actual value of the tapestries or, even less, to the essential needs of the endangered basilica. So why allow a new catastrophe if it will not save the basilica from another catastrophe? The idea of selling the Vilnius tapestries into foreign hands, however noble the motives behind it, should be absolutely rejected and resisted with all our might. It is a great surprise that such an easy and reckless decision was taken to allow the export of priceless artefacts, thus knowingly causing incalculable damage to the cultural treasury of Vilnius if the Vilnius tapestries were exported. Money for the rescue of the endangered Vilnius Cathedral must and will be found; it will be given by the Polish society and the Polish government. But the cathedral cannot and must not be saved by such means.

This should be understood by authoritative factors and the idea of selling it should be abandoned as soon as possible. The public will not be indifferent to the matter, and will not allow the Vilnius tapestries to be taken abroad. In response to all these voices, which were in fact an expression of widespread concern and astonishment at the position of the Vilnius clergy on this issue, the Vilnius Metropolitan Chapter resolved to make public an extensive 8-paragraph 'Statement', the content and form of which, as well as the phrasing of certain sentences and the type of expressions used, must have aroused even more astonishment.

Here are some of the paragraphs (quoted according to the "Kurier Warszawski", no. 32):

Paragraph 1): "The Chapter protests most categorically against the malicious dragging of the Holy See and the Archpriest into a dispute that is derogatory to their solemnity and exposes them to irrelevance, and the use of every opportunity to bluster with sectarian fervour against the Church, the hierarchy and the clergy with the venom of slander and insinuation, as well as against the linking of matters quite outside the Church with the matter of saving the Basilica.".

Paragraph 4): "The Chapter affirms its undeniable rights to the ecclesiastical property in its possession, and therefore to the tapestries, and emphasises that only it can dispose of them within the limits of canon law and the state regulations of the Republic of Poland. The Chapter, which has not existed since yesterday, like the Church in general in the country, has so far been able to protect the precious mementos, in spite of historical cataclysms, better than private individuals and even public institutions, and will protect them, with God's help, also for the future.".

The Chapter forgot, in formulating this paragraph, that there are cultural goods of a kind that are the property of the whole, that in relation to them the legal "norms of possession", whether canonical or state, are of only minor importance. These are the so-called national goods....

Paragraph 6): "The Chapter emphasises that the matter of divesting itself of the tapestries is not topical at the present time. However, should it be faced with the alternative of the Basilica or the tapestries without it, it would rather make this sacrifice too, so long as it saves the temple, a more precious monument of faith and culture, than the tapestries.".

This alternative is fundamentally false. In the present conditions, with the current drop in prices on world markets and a general shortage of cash, perhaps not even 100,000 zlotys would be obtained for the Vilnius tapestry collection. And saving the Basilica is said to require around one million zlotys.

Paragraph 7): "The Chapter states that none of its members has told anyone that the Chapter has decided to dispose of the tapestries and take them abroad, and that Rome has reserved the right of pre-emption, for there has been no such intention to date. If, however, the Chapter had been forced to dispose of them, it could not have done so except in compliance with the provisions of canon law, and therefore with the permission of the Holy See and the State Authorities, and it would not have made a secret of it. The alarm raised is therefore quite superfluous.".

Putting the alternative mentioned in paragraph 6 proves that the triggered alarm was even necessary - if only as a preventive measure for the future.

Paragraph 8): "Finally, the Chapter insists that the whole hostile action in the matter of the tapestries was initiated by spheres, persons and writings unfriendly and even notoriously hostile to the Church hierarchy and the clergy, or not having in common with the Catholic Church or fallen away from it , and therefore have no voice in the affairs of the Church and her property, and since in their foul work they use the tried and tested method of inaccuracy, often slander, calumny, crude harassment and deliberate falsehood, they do not deserve to be believed.".

Leaving aside the juiciness of the expressions, indeed unprecedented in Church enunciations, it must be said that the question was not whether those who came forward in defence of the endangered national asset of the Vilnius tapestries (especially there, in Vilnius!) are more or less hostile to the clergy, etc., but whether they are. The identification of the interests and dignity of the Church with the interests of individual representatives of the clergy, who, as experience teaches, are quite often mistaken in matters of art, monuments and the interests of national culture, is based on erroneous premises and often only brings harm to the Church. Precisely because "longer the monastery than the prior". In any case, the Vilnius Council of Artistic Associations deserves deep appreciation for having acted both in good faith and for a good cause. And it can be proud of the fact that it did indeed prevent the possible export and sale of the Vilnius tapestries.

A valuable publication on Vilnius tapestries has just gone out of print entitled: "Vilnius tapestries: their origin, value and fate". Published by the Council of Vilnius Artistic Associations, 20 reproductions - 136 printed pages. The much-publicised battle in the entire Polish press over the Vilnius tapestries, which were threatened with export abroad and which are priceless art relics from the years 1620-1725, has been recorded in the form of a serious, beautifully produced publication. The book consists of an exhaustive, vividly written dissertation by Dr Marjan Morelowski, Professor of Art History at Stefan Batory University, on the famous tapestries from the Treasury of the Vilnius Basilica and others in the Vilnius region, a lecture by Ms Maria Znamierowska-Prüfferova on the technique of the tapestries, and a collection of documents and key press voices in defence of these invaluable treasures.

The book will be read with vivid interest not only by professionals, but by every intelligent reader. For the first time, all the tapestry beds of Vilnius Cathedral have been published here in exquisite reproductions, adding reproductions of paintings and weaving art of the same period in other countries as comparative examples. Price 4.50 zł. Proceeds to be used to save the Vilnius Basilica and the tapestries.