Diplomacy Looking Back in Poland

In Poland, President Nawrocki has just created (29 October 2025) the position of “ambassador for historical diplomacy” who will deal with foreign-policy issues relating to history. The person appointed is Dr. hab. Grzegorz Berendt, a well-known historian: worked in the IPN (Institute of National Remembrance), has held roles in museums (e.g., Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk). He was Nawrocki’s PhD supervisor when Nawrocki studied history at the University of Gdańsk.

According to the president’s office, Berendt’s focus “will be on historical topics important to the state, its politics, and diplomacy from a historical perspective”. He will not receive a salary for this role; it’s described as a “social function”. Moreover, his role is not part of the regular diplomatic corps (i.e., he’s not a typical foreign service diplomat). He reports directly to the president, not the foreign ministry.

Nawrocki, head of the Polish "Insitute of National Memory" [IPN] has emphasized historical policy (“history diplomacy”) in his presidency. By creating this role, Nawrocki is signaling that history itself (past narratives, memory) is a central axis of his foreign policy. It’s not just about diplomacy in the usual sense but about shaping how the past is acknowledged, debated, and acknowledged on the international stage.

There are coincerns about the legitimacy of this position, precisely what 'powers' this advisor (I guess he is) will have, especially because Berendt is personally connected to Nawrocki, there’s a risk that this role will be seen as less about objective historical work and more about “political history.” That could undermine its credibility internationally or among independent historians. It has not been clarified what resources he will have, will there be a team? Will this office be supported logistically? If it’s just symbolic, impact may be limited — but if backed with resources, it could be more potent.

A striking feature of Poland’s current political class, and often its electorate, is the tendency to look backward at past grievances rather than forward toward cooperation in meeting the challenges of today and tomorrow. In contemporary Polish politics, it feels at times that appeals to historical legitimacy often take the place of a coherent vision for the future. This backward orientation is sustained by several deep-rooted historical and cultural factors that make it especially difficult for Poland to move beyond past injustices and focus on the challenges of the present.

Poland’s national identity has long been constructed around themes of loss and resilience. For over a century (1795–1918), the country did not exist as a state; it was partitioned by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Its survival depended on memory and myth. History functioned as a substitute for statehood, and remembering became a moral duty. Attempts to dominate Poland by erasing or reshaping its identity in that period, and then renewed and continued during the Nazi occupation (1939–45) and then the subsequent period of Sovietisation (1949–1989) reinforced the conviction that “if we forget, we disappear.” In this sense, remembrance became an act of political self-defence rather than mere nostalgia.

Poland’s modern history has also made it difficult to overcome a persistent sense of geopolitical insecurity. The country’s borders and sovereignty have rarely felt permanently secure. Its geography, positioned between Germany and Russia, ensures that historical experience continually intrudes upon the present, for example, Russia’s invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022 and continued occupation of parts of the country have reawakened collective memories of Soviet domination within living memory. For many political leaders, invoking the past serves to keep the population alert and unified against potential external threats.

The political right, notably PiS and its allies, has been particularly adept at using history to mobilize patriotism, defend “national dignity”, and portray itself as the guardian of truth against Western or liberal “distortion”. The current project of “historical diplomacy” is of course an expression of justifiable resentment about past injustices suffered by the Polish people and state, and the fact that the world in effect washed their hands of the Polish issue at Yalta, and then a mere nod at massive atrocities through a highly selective showtrial (Nov 1946- 1 Oct 1946) at Nuremberg that went nowhere to punishing German and Soviet war criminals. It is therefore a reflection of a continuing hunger for acknowledgment. Many Western Europeans today possess only a fragmentary understanding of what occurred in this region during the “missing” half-century from 1939 to 1989. The constant rehearsal of historical grievances is, in this sense, an attempt to make the world listen.

While the cultivation of historical memory has served important functions, it can also be taken too far. When remembrance becomes selective or centred exclusively on victimhood, it risks turning history into a moral enclosure rather than a field of understanding. A narrative that dwells only on loss and injustice overlooks many dimensions of what Poland has been and might yet become. A history written solely in black neglects the complexity and richness of the past, its creativity, diversity, and moments of cooperation, achievement, and generosity. The danger lies in mistaking suffering for the whole of national experience, and in defining identity primarily through what was endured rather than through what was, despite everything, created or contributed.

Poland need not erase its past, but it would be useful to learn to reframe it. A mature historical culture recognises the coexistence of pain and accomplishment, trauma and resilience. It acknowledges both the wrongs committed against Poles and those committed by them, seeing these not as contradictions but as parts of a shared human story. This means broadening the frame of remembrance to include not only the wrongs suffered but also the responsibilities borne, including difficult episodes such as Jedwabne or anti-Ukrainian violence. Only by embracing this fuller perspective can Poland move from defensive remembrance toward reflective understanding. In doing so, history becomes not an instrument of grievance but a source of dialogue, empathy, and renewal — a means of understanding rather than accusation. True balance is achieved when memory informs identity without imprisoning it, when “never again” signifies not “never forgive” but “never repeat”.

Numerous Polish intellectuals, writers, and historians have long advocated this forward-looking balance, among them Adam Michnik, Olga Tokarczuk, and Paweł Machcewicz. They remind us that Polish culture also contains a humanist and cosmopolitan strand, one capable of empathy, irony, and reinvention. Yet politically, such voices remain less powerful than those who can transform pain into votes.

More than 1,000 items stolen from Oakland Museum of California storage facility in huge art heist

Museum's sprawling site (Nicholas Klein/Getty Images)

More than 1,000 objects have been stolen from the Oakland Museum of California in what appears to be one of the most significant art thefts in the institution’s history, and yet the public remains largely in the dark about what exactly has happened. 

The OMCA offers collections of art, history and natural science inside a 110,000-square-foot gallery on a seven-acre campus situated between downtown Oakland and Lake Merritt.

In the early hours of October 15, at around 3:30 a.m., burglars broke into an off-site storage facility belonging to the museum and removed hundreds of items from its collection. According to official statements, the stolen objects include Native American baskets, jewellery, and numerous historic artifacts, many of them donated by private benefactors and forming part of California’s shared cultural heritage.

Authorities have confirmed that the total number of missing objects exceeds one thousand, but beyond that, little information has been made public. The Oakland Police Department has not disclosed the precise location of the storage site, nor have they released an estimated value of the stolen items. No arrests have been made, and the museum’s management has offered few details about how such a large-scale theft could have taken place.

The investigation is being led jointly by the Oakland Police Department and the FBI’s elite Art Crime Team, a small, highly specialized unit of roughly twenty agents responsible for art-related cases nationwide, ranging from theft and forgery to antiquities and cultural property trafficking. Despite their involvement, officials have provided minimal updates, and key facts remain withheld from the public.

Museum director Lori Fogarty described the theft as “a brazen act that robs the public of our state’s cultural heritage”, emphasizing that the looted pieces represent not just financial loss but a deep blow to collective history. Yet even as investigators pursue leads, the silence surrounding the incident, the secrecy about what was taken, where it was kept, and how it was secured, has left the public with more questions than answers. 

Anna Bauman,'More than 1,000 items stolen from Oakland Museum of California storage facility in huge art heist', San Francisco Chronicle, Oct 29, 2025.

1990s Antiquities Smuggler Dies of Overdose

Jonathan Aden Felix Tokeley-Parry hit national headlines in the 1990s as an antiquities smuggler in the 1990s. He later went on to write an interesting book, justifying his exploits (2006). He has just died in a Devon hospital (Carl Eve, 'Man jailed for smuggling Egyptian treasures dies after overdose' Devon Live, 24 Oct 2025).

A self-proclaimed cavalryman who turned art smuggler in the early 1990s died at a Devon hospital after telling a friend he had overdosed. The inquest into the death of Jonathan Tokeley-Parry was held on October 16 by senior coroner Philip Spinney at Exeter County Hall. Mr Spinney noted that 74-year-old Mr Tokeley-Parry was born in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire and resided at a property in Lower Lookout, Bucks Mills, Bideford. Mr Spinney said the 74-year-old passed away in the early hours of October 9 at North Devon District Hospital. He said Mr Tokeley-Parry was single and a 'retired army officer' at the time of his death. Describing the circumstances of his death, Mr Spinney said Mr Tokeley-Parry messaged a friend on to tell her he had taken an overdose of a household drug. She called 999 and called for an ambulance which attended his home address and took him to North Devon District Hospital. He was immediately admitted to the intensive care unit but despite intervention he sadly died at 2.30am that morning. The medical cause of death was given as an overdose. The hearing was adjourned and a full inquest will take place at a later date.

At the time of his death, Tokeley-Parry had reportedly been working on a new book titled 'Smuggler's Blues'.

In the 1990s, officers from Scotland Yard's arts and antiques squad found that Tokeley-Parry had masterminded a number of trips to Egypt between June 1992 and December 1993 he had organised seven trips after recruiting Mark Perry, 30, an odd-job man, as his 500 pounds -per-trip courier. His house in Barnstable was raided in 1994. Tokeley-Parry, then 46, appeared at Knightsbridge Crown Court in 1997 and was convicted of two counts of smuggling Egyptian artefacts into Britain by disguising them as cheap trinkets and received a six year jail sentence for each of the handling stolen goods charges and a further for obtaining a passport by deception. He only served time in a British prison from 1997 until 2000.

Just days later, Tokeley-Parry was convicted by an Egyptian court in his absence and sentenced to 15 years' hard labour. At the same trial, accomplice Mark Perry and several Egyptians involved in the smuggling ring were also found guilty and sentenced.

Tokely Parry was a witness in the trial "United States v. Frederick Schultz" in which the prominent New York antiquities dealer Mr. Frederic Schultz, former president of the National Association of Dealers in Ancient, Oriental, and Primitive Art, was charged with conspiring to deal in antiquities stolen from Egypt. After some delay the trial began in New York in January 2001. In the trial, Schultz's lawyers argued that their client had bought antiquities in good faith from Tokeley-Parry and was therefore innocent. However, witnesses, including officers of Scotland Yard and the F.B.I. and Tokeley-Parry and his young fiancée, depicted a different situation. They exhibited bank statements and secret-agent like correspondences between the two men that hinted at a less than aboveboard business relationship. Ultimately, the jury agreed with the case set forth by the prosecution. On 16 July 2001, Schultz was indicted on one count of conspiring to receive stolen Egyptian antiquities in violation of the National Stolen Property Act (NSPA) - under which it is a crime to deal in property that has been “stolen, unlawfully converted or taken, knowing the same to be stolen”. In February 2002, Schultz was convicted under the NSPA and in June 2002 he was sentenced to a term of 33 months of imprisonment and a fine of $50,000. Schultz appealed the verdict but in June 2003, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the conviction.

Jonathan Tokeley 2006, 'Rescuing the Past: The Cultural Heritage Crusader' Imprint Academic.

Spain Launches Investigation into Auction of Yemeni Artifacts in Barcelona

'Spain Launches Investigation into Auction of Yemeni Artifacts in Barcelona', YemenOnline 2025-10-20

Spanish authorities are investigating the sale of two ancient Yemeni tombstones from the Kingdom of Qataban (1st century BC–AD) at a Barcelona auction held by Templum Auction House on July 30, 2025. The probe, sparked by Yemeni antiquities expert Abdullah Mohsen, focuses on the artifacts’ provenance amid suspicions of illegal export from Yemen. Mohsen flagged one tombstone’s bull’s head decoration and potentially falsified Musnad inscription. The case highlights concerns over the global trade of looted cultural heritage from conflict zones, with critics condemning the sale as a violation of UNESCO conventions and a threat to Yemen’s legacy.

Heist at the Louvre

The Louvre Museum in Paris was closed this morning following a robbery in which several historic jewellery pieces were stolen. The theft occurred at around 9:30 a.m. local time, shortly after the museum had opened to the public, prompting the evacuation of visitors.

According to French media, the thieves entered the Apollo Gallery via a mechanised lift connected to a service area near the Seine. They reportedly used small chainsaws to remove nine items, including tiaras and brooches associated with Napoleon and Joséphine, before leaving the scene on scooters and heading toward the A6 motorway.

Officials have described the operation as highly organised. No injuries were reported. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the stolen pieces are of “incalculable value,” while Culture Minister Rachida Dati confirmed that the museum remains closed as police continue their investigation.

'France: daring daytime heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris', France 24 19/10/2025

US War Loot Ends up in a Garden

        How did that get there? And why was it left behind?                  

Becca Monaghan, 'Ancient artefact containing mysterious 'spirits of the dead' message discovered in a backyard' NewsBreak.com 15.10.2025

"mysterious 'spirits of the dead' message". Trump's Americans are so funny and so weird. Dis Manibus... a common formula in Roman funerary art. 

The small marble tablet recently unearthed in a New Orleans backyard turns out to be WW2 loot, and the item came from a museum in Italy. Originally discovered in the 1860s in a Roman military cemetery near Civitavecchia, Italy, it marked the grave of a sailor named Sextus Congenius Verus. The object entered the collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia, where it remained until the Second World War. During heavy bombardments in the early 1940s, the museum suffered extensive damage, and numerous artefacts were lost or stolen amid the chaos. Among them was the gravestone of Sextus Congenius Verus.

It is believed that a U.S. serviceman stationed in Italy around this time took possession of the piece — either as a keepsake or as part of the widespread movement of cultural property that occurred during and after the War. The tablet was later brought to New Orleans, where it passed quietly through a family for decades, eventually serving as a decorative garden stone.

Its true identity remained unknown until 2024, when new homeowners accidentally unearthed it during garden work. Scholars quickly matched the find to records from the Civitavecchia museum, confirming its authenticity. Today, the FBI and Italian authorities are coordinating its repatriation. It is a shjame that it was looted in the first place. More shocking is that not only did the family keep it, but then when they moved house just left it behind lying in some weeds in the garden.

"When news of the discovery broke, Erin Scott O'Brien's ex-husband called her to watch the story. She instantly recognised the marble piece, which they had used as a garden ornament. They had forgotten about it before selling the house to Santoro in 2018. O' Brien explained she inherited the tablet from her grandparents: her grandmother was Italian, and her grandfather, a New Orleans native, had been stationed in Italy during World War II."

"Significant destruction of the archaeological record and serious corruption of the corpus of knowledge".

Christos Tsirogiannis; David W. J. Gill; Christopher Chippindale, 'A Corrupt Cycladic Corpus of Marble Figures ', Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies (2025) 13 (3): 203–233. https://doi.org/10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.13.3.0203

ABSTRACT
The urgent seeking for Cycladic figures since the nineteenth century has caused significant destruction of the archaeological record and serious corruption of the corpus of knowledge. Unsurprisingly, there is little prospect of this corruption ever being understood in detail due to the lack of records. The problem proves impossible, as the loss of knowledge cannot now be undone. To address this issue, we examined the contribution to knowledge of collections based in universities (The Ashmolean and the Fitzwilliam), public museums (The J. Paul Getty Museum), and a private collection (Leonard N. Stern). By examining how these Cycladic figures’ collections were historically formed, we understood that they can add nothing to our knowledge of the Early Bronze Age in the Aegean. Therefore, we divided the collected corpus into four distinct parts, suggesting sensible and practical guidelines for the future by which we can salvage some trustworthy understanding from a corrupted mess.

Now it is time to do the same to the "database" of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, where there is equally little control over the hygeine of the "data" included, there being many apparent out-of-place artefacts in it and potential for many, many more "dirty data". A problem blinkered arkies in the UK desiring to work with artefact hunters and collectors rather than dealing with the problem they cause.

German Collector Returns Stolen Artefact from Ancient Olympia After Six Decades

A limestone fragment of an Ionic capital, illegally taken from Ancient Olympia in the 1960s, has been offcially returned to Greece from Münster, Germany, the Greek Ministry of Culture announced on Saturday. The artefact, measuring 24 cm in height and 33.5 cm in width, was removed from the Leonidaion, a 4th-century BC guesthouse that once hosted athletes and dignitaries in the sanctuary of Olympia. It bears traces of stucco and stylistic similarities to other Ionic capitals excavated at the site. The Leonidaion’s northern section was unearthed by German archaeologists between 1875 and 1881, with the full excavation completed by 1956. A German woman visited the site in 1960 and somehow acquired the fragment. The repatriation ceremony took place on October 10, 2025, at the Ancient Olympia Conference Center (SPAP). The German woman who had taken the artefact more than sixty years ago was inspired by recent restitutions of Greek antiquities by the University of Münster, she voluntarily surrendered the piece to the institution, which then coordinated its return to Greece.

Stella Mazonakis, 'German Woman Returns Ancient Greek Artifact Stolen Over 50 Years Ago' Greek City Times 8.10.2025. by

Bronze Age Gold Artefacts Stolen from St Fagans National Museum of History

Several Bronze Age gold artefacts have been stolen from St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff, one of Wales’s principal repositories of archaeological material. The burglary occurred in the early hours of 6 October, when intruders forced entry into the museum’s main building and removed objects from a "secure display case".

The stolen assemblage is reported to include gold bracelets and a lunula. Such artefacts are of major archaeological significance, representing some of the earliest examples of metalworking in Atlantic Europe and offering key insights into prehistoric craftsmanship and long-distance exchange networks.

Two men from Northampton have been charged in connection with the theft, police named them as Gavin Burnett (43), and Darren Burnett (50), while a 45-year-old woman from Northamptonshire has been arrested as part of the investigation and is on police bail. The men appeared at Northampton Magistrates' Court today. The stolen objects have not yet been recovered.

The loss of these artefacts constitutes a serious blow to the preservation of Wales’s Bronze Age heritage and underscores the vulnerability of archaeological collections held in public trust in Britain.

Dr. Khaled El-Enany Elected UNESCO Director-General

Dr. Khaled El-Enany has been elected as the new Director-General of UNESCO by the organization's Executive Board, though his nomination still requires final approval from the 194 member states at the General Conference on November 6, 2025. The former Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities is poised to become the first Arab and only the second African to lead UNESCO, succeeding Audrey Azoulay in mid-November 2025.

El-Enany is a distinguished Egyptologist and professor at Helwan University. He previously served as Egypt's Minister of Antiquities (2016–2019)* and Minister of Tourism and Antiquities (2019–2022). During his time as minister, he oversaw significant heritage projects such as the Grand Egyptian Museum and the renovation of other historical buildings such as the Baron Empain Palace, Graeco-Roman Museum and Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue. He also played a key role in the Pharaohs' Golden Parade, which relocated 22 ancient mummies to the new museum.

* Succeeding Mamdouh Eldamaty June 2014- March 2016