A painting that was celebrated as a masterpiece of Polish realist art for more than 70 years has returned to public display at the National Museum in Poznań, despite being definitively proven to be an elaborate forgery. The work, titled "Vegetable Market at Żelaznej Bramy Square in Warsaw," was long attributed to renowned impressionist painter Józef Pankiewicz and believed to have been created in 1888.
The painting's supposed historical significance made its recent exposure as a fake all the more shocking to the art world. According to museum records, the original work earned Pankiewicz a silver medal at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1889, just one year after its completion. This prestigious recognition marked a pivotal breakthrough in the artist's burgeoning career and established the painting as a cornerstone piece of Polish artistic heritage.
The first cracks in the painting's authenticity appeared in 2017, when Professor Michał Haake of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań began noticing troubling discrepancies. While examining the museum's version alongside reproductions published in post-war magazines, Haake identified several striking differences that couldn't be explained away. Speaking to Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, he pointed out particularly noticeable variations in one of the central figures—a woman carrying a basket.
In the historical reproduction, the woman appeared with significantly larger eyes, a broader nose, a smaller chin, and a less tilted head position. Her ear was also clearly visible, unlike in the museum's version. "In fact, there wasn't a single element in the Poznań painting that matched," Haake explained, highlighting the extent of the discrepancies he had discovered.
Two years after Haake's findings came to light, the National Museum in Poznań launched its own comprehensive investigation in 2019. The painting was immediately removed from public display to allow for an independent and thorough analysis. The investigation proved challenging because the artwork had undergone extensive overpainting over the decades, making it extremely difficult to assess its true authenticity beneath the layers of added material.
Agnieszka Rękawek, who led the painstaking research effort, explained the meticulous process her team undertook. "Our goal was to clean the painting of these secondary layers and verify whether the brushwork was consistent with Pankiewicz's style," she said. Working under microscopes, conservators carefully removed these later additions layer by layer. "Through long and complex procedures, we managed to remove paint that covered as much as 62% of the original composition," Rękawek added.
Following the extensive cleaning process, researchers conducted a comprehensive analysis of the canvas, paint structure, and pigments. These findings were then systematically compared against Pankiewicz's other authenticated works, particularly those created during the same time period in the late 1880s. The team had hoped to find evidence that the forgery might have been painted over a damaged original, but the results left them stunned.
"I had hoped we'd find at least a fragment of the preserved original in this painting, and these hopes remained until the very last moment of cleaning," Rękawek revealed. However, after stripping the painting down to its most basic form, researchers were unable to find even the remotest residual evidence to support the theory that any authentic Pankiewicz work lay beneath.
The investigation uncovered numerous compositional differences when comparing the stripped painting to a 19th-century photograph of the original masterpiece. Many details had been simplified by the unknown forger, particularly the human figures, the signage throughout the market scene, and the architectural elements of the market hall itself. Researchers also determined that the forger may have used tracing paper in the creation process, a technique that Pankiewicz never employed in his authentic works.
Further revelations continued to emerge from the investigation. The team discovered that the painting was slightly smaller in dimensions than the original, and perhaps most damning, that Pankiewicz's signature had been forged and applied long after the work was completed. Based on all the evidence gathered, researchers concluded that the fake was most likely created in the early 20th century.
"All evidence points to this being made in the early 20th century," Rękawek confirmed. "And the presence of the signature confirms that we're dealing with a deliberate forgery, not a reproduction." This distinction was crucial, as it proved that the unknown artist had intentionally set out to deceive buyers and experts, rather than simply creating a study or homage to the original work.
Despite the shocking revelation that the painting had successfully fooled art experts and museum professionals for seven decades, Rękawek expressed pride in her role in finally unraveling the truth. "For 70 years, no one noticed that this was not an original painting—working on this has been a fantastic adventure," she said, reflecting on the unprecedented nature of the discovery.
The National Museum in Poznań has taken the revelation in stride and made an innovative decision about the painting's future. Rather than hiding the forgery away in storage, the museum has opted to return it to public display as part of an educational exhibit. The painting is now clearly labeled as a forgery and positioned directly next to a photograph of the authentic original for comparison.
Forming part of an exhibit titled "Succumb to Illusion," the painting now serves as a fascinating case study that highlights both research and conservation processes in the art world. The display also offers viewers the unusual opportunity to appreciate the technical skill of an unknown artist who successfully misled experts and art lovers for decades, even if their intentions were deceptive.
As for the fate of Pankiewicz's original masterpiece, that remains one of art history's unsolved mysteries. Historians believe that the authentic painting returned to Poland after the Universal Exhibition in Paris, but it most likely vanished shortly afterward. The original work has never been publicly exhibited since 1890, leaving its current whereabouts unknown and adding another layer of intrigue to this remarkable story of artistic deception.
