Masterpiece stolen during World War II returned to National Museum

One of the most precious masterpieces stolen by the Nazis during World War II, Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase by Jacob van Walscapelli, has returned to Poland, after having been found in the U.S. The painting was flown to Poland yesterday by Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, returning from his U.S. visit. The picture, worth over $1 million, was bought in the early 1990s by a U.S. diplomat in South America. He likely found out that it was stolen when he tried to put it up for auction at Sotheby's in 1998, when he decided to return it to the National Museum in Warsaw. (Zycie, April 7-8, p.1) T.J.