News
Citi Handlowy's Kronenberg Foundation Presents 10th Annual Professor Aleksander Gieysztor Award
The winner of the 10th Annual Professor Aleksander Gieysztor Award
made for outstanding contribution to the preservation of the Polish cultural
heritage is Professor Jan K. Ostrowski. Director of the Wawel Royal Castle,
Professor Ostrowski is initiator of the publication of a monumental study on the
treasures of sacred art in the eastern territories of the Old Republic of
Poland.
Citi Handlowy's Kronenberg Foundation has bestowed The
Professor Aleksander Gieysztor Award each year since 2000.
The Jury of the
Professor Aleksander Gieysztor Award recognized Professor Ostrowski for his efforts
aimed at exploring the cultural heritage of the territories that used to belong to the
Republic of Poland and are now located outside the Polish borders. Under the research
program headed by Professor Ostrowski, a full inventory of sacred sites and artworks in
the indicated territory will be made (all pieces of religious art as of 1939 as well as
those destroyed during World War II). In the years 1993-2008, 16 volumes of "Materials
for the History of Religious Art" were published. As part of the project, 436
descriptions of pieces of art made by 30 authors under the editorship of Professor
Ostrowski were presented. All 16 volumes include 6,235 pages of text and 8,579
illustrations.
In previous years, the Professor Aleksander Gieysztor Award was
presented to, among others, Ossolineum, the Social Committee for Stare Powazki Cemetery;
Professor Tadeusz Chrzanowski, President of the Social Committee for Renovation of
Historical Sites in Kraków; Stefan Sutkowski, Director of the Warsaw Chamber Opera; the
Society for the Preservation of Historical Monuments; Professor Stanislaw Waltos,
Director of the Jagiellonian University Museum; Professor Kazimierz Piotr Zaleski,
Director of the Polish Library in Paris.
The patron of the Award was the
President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, a member of the Council of the Kronenberg
Foundation, an outstanding Polish historian, and a scientist of international standing.
The honor includes an award of PLN 50,000 and it is presented for outstanding
achievements in the following areas: museum curatorship, conservation, archival and
library work; preservation and promotion of the Polish cultural heritage in Poland and
abroad; projects undertaken by local authorities to safeguard the national heritage;
individual and collective initiatives to collect and preserve heritage remnants;
promotion of the knowledge of the need and methods to preserve the cultural heritage in
Poland.