Looted art, gay rights merge in recovery of Polish painting

 | 
05/05/2019

A same-sex Los Angeles couple was dumbfounded when Homeland Security agents showed up at their home in 2016 with the news that a beloved old portrait hanging in their kitchen had been looted by the Nazis from Poland’s National Museum during World War II. With heavy hearts, they relinquished the 17th-century painting, “Portrait of a Lady” by the Flemish artist Melchior Geldorp, which they had bought unaware of its origins, donating along with it a 19th-century frame that they had bought for it. The portrait is now hanging again in the National Museum in Warsaw, nearly eight decades after its theft, its return welcomed in a ceremony last September attended by Poland’s culture minister, the American ambassador and the couple. The two men, Craig Gilmore and David Crocker, were recently back in Poland using the connections they gained with their goodwill gesture to reach out to the local LGBT community, offering financial donations and messages of solidarity to a group that faces misunderstanding and discrimination.

Share this:

Latest Global News

Added on: 04/26/2024
04/26/2024
In August of 2005 when Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi, the combination of torrential rain and flawed infrastructure proved deadly. More …
Added on: 04/26/2024
04/25/2024
Internet users’ public expression of their sexual orientation does not authorise using this data “for the purposes of personalised advertising,” a legal adviser at …
Added on: 04/26/2024
04/25/2024
Congolese member of parliament and former presidential candidate Constant Mutamba is standing by his bill that would criminalize gay sex for the first time in …

Explore LGBTQ+ Issues

Added on: 04/26/2024
Internet users’ public expression of their sexual orientation does not authorise using this data “for the purposes of personalised advertising,” a legal adviser at …
Added on: 04/25/2024
A “radical feminist” group called the Women’s Liberation Front, that has helped shape anti-trans laws nationwide, has also played a role in a proposed …
Added on: 04/25/2024
A UK minister has claimed that Rwanda is a “progressive” country where LGBTQ+ migrants will be safe, despite warnings from queer charities. Illegal migration minister Michael …