A 19th-century print looted from Wilanów Palace during the Second World War has been returned to Poland after nearly eight decades, in the latest recovery of cultural property taken during the German occupation. The work, a Lady with a Fan oleograph, was listed in the palace's records as inventory number 775, appearing in inventories of 1877 and 1895, before it disappeared in the autumn of 1944.

The print was removed under the administration of Alfred Schellenberg, the German commissioner who oversaw the palace during the occupation. It resurfaced in Germany, where a couple who held it contacted the Polish authorities in May 2023 to arrange its return. The handover was made unconditionally, with no payment or exchange sought.

The back of the print still bears the stamp of the palace gallery, reading GALERYA OBRAZÓW W WILLANOWIE, which helped confirm its identity and its origin in the Wilanów collection. The palace, built in the late seventeenth century for King John III Sobieski on the outskirts of Warsaw, houses one of Poland's most important historic collections, and it was one of many Polish institutions stripped of artworks during the war. Its losses have been the subject of recovery efforts for decades.

The return adds to a slow but steady stream of wartime loot coming back to Polish collections, often through private individuals who choose to give objects up voluntarily. Polish cultural officials have welcomed the gesture as a sign that the work of tracing looted art continues to bear fruit, even eighty years after the war ended.