July 31, 2026
FBI Recovers 75 Paintings by Hanna “Kali” Weynerowska After 16-Year Search
In April 2014, the FBI announced the recovery of 75 paintings by Polish artist and World War II resistance fighter Hanna “Kali” Weynerowska, concluding a sixteen-year effort to locate works that had gone missing following her death in 1998. Before her death in San Francisco, Weynerowska had bequeathed her paintings to the Polish Museum in Rapperswil, Switzerland, but the transfer of the works was never completed.
Working with the Polish Ministry of Culture and the FBI’s Legal Attaché Office in Warsaw, the FBI located the paintings in a storage facility in Santa Rosa, California, where they had remained in the possession of a relative of the artist. The recovery was facilitated through the FBI’s Legal Attaché Program, which places FBI agents at U.S. embassies abroad to coordinate international law enforcement cooperation. The program continues today and serves as a key mechanism for collaboration between the FBI and foreign partners on cross-border investigations, including matters involving cultural property.
According to the FBI, the works had apparently remained in family custody due to the costs associated with shipping them to Switzerland and what investigators described as “a bit of emotional attachment.” The recovered paintings, including Boy on Donkey, The Cobbler, and Walking a Bird, were transported to the Polish Museum in Rapperswil and formally returned during a ceremony on June 16, 2014. Although the individual works were estimated to have modest market value, Polish officials emphasized their cultural and historical importance, describing them as invaluable contributions to Poland’s artistic heritage. FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. Johnson of the San Francisco Field Office stated: “Preserving our past is priceless, and we were honored to be a part of this quest to get these paintings finally home.”
Following their recovery, the paintings became part of the collection of the Polish Museum in Rapperswil, Switzerland, where they are preserved as part of Weynerowska’s artistic legacy. Read more here and here.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and is not meant to provide legal advice. Readers should not construe or rely on any comment or statement in this article as legal advice. For legal advice, readers should seek a consultation with an attorney.
