Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Warsaw

Here in Ujazdów Park is Michał Kamieński’s memorial to Ignacy Jan Paderewski. The figure shows Paderewski seated on a chair in a suit, set on a compact cubical base. Paderewski was a pianist, composer, and statesman who championed Poland’s return to independence.

This sculpture has an extraordinary wartime escape. It was made in Warsaw in nineteen thirty-nine after Polish communities abroad proposed the tribute. Occupying German officers marked it for destruction in a melting furnace, but workers at Czesław Chojnowski’s metalworks dismantled the statue and buried its pieces.

In nineteen forty-two, the hidden pieces were transferred to Bródno Cemetery. After Warsaw’s liberation, the monument was excavated, reconstructed, and displayed outside the workshop. Its route through the city continued for decades: it entered the National Museum’s courtyard, then was unveiled near the Ostrogski Palace, before reaching this park in nineteen eighty-five. Notice the composed, seated figure: it honours an artist and public leader, while its own survival embodies the determination to preserve Polish memory.