In September 1939, during the first days of World War II, the most valuable museum works, mainly from the Wawel collection, were sent out of Poland, in order to protect them from being plundered by invaders. They were sent to Canada in 1940, via France and Great Britain, and stored at an experimental farm near Ottawa.

In 1945, a part of them were deposited in the Bank of Montreal in Ottawa, while another part consisting mainly of Wawel tapestries turned up at the provincial museum in Quebec City. In 1946, Dr. S. Swirz-Zalewski, one of the custodians, disclosed the location of Wawel’s Treasures, which was an enormous sensation for the Polish community and for Canada, simultaneously provoking lengthy attempts to return these priceless works of art to Poland.

Interestingly, The Alliancer led the appeals to return the treasures to Poland by publishing numerous articles about this issue. In the article published on November 17, 1946, and entitled “Artistic treasures belong to the nation,” was written:

The issue was not simple because of the many opponents who disagreed with this idea. When world-renowned pianist Witold Malcuzynski returned to the country in 1957, he was asked to mediate the issue of the return of Wawel’s Treasures. Witold Malcuzynski was able to incite the other custodian engineer J. Krzywda-Polkowski to negotiate with the delegation to Poland led by Jagiellonian University professor Jerzy Sablewski.

In January 1959, two trunks with Polish artwork, which had been stored at the Bank of Montreal in Ottawa, arrived in Poland. The second part of Wawel’s Treasures, which had been deposited at the provincial museum in Quebec City, were returned to Poland in 1961 after more negotiations. The Polish Alliance of Canada’s members had reasons to be satisfied, since its was thanks to numerous publications by “their” press and to their representatives – heated advocates of returning Poland’s treasures – that these treasures were brought to Wawel, a place dear to every Pole, after many years of effort.