# Portrait of a Young Man > Raffaello Sanzio, called Raphael - c. 1513-14; dates from c. 1509 to c. 1516 are given in the literature, and the Polish Wikipedia entry follows a dating of c. 1511 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/raphael/raphael-portrait-of-a-young-man/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-09-25 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Raffaello Sanzio, called Raphael - **Date:** c. 1513-14; dates from c. 1509 to c. 1516 are given in the literature, and the Polish Wikipedia entry follows a dating of c. 1511 - **Medium:** Oil on panel (a cradled wooden panel, according to the Polish catalogue description). The Accademia Carrara copy is on canvas; the lost original is not. - **Dimensions:** 75 x 59 cm. The Polish Catalogue of Wartime Losses gives height 75.00 cm and width 59.00 cm, which settles the figure and shows that the ministry article's '59 x 75 cm' is width by height. The English-language Wikipedia entry's 72 x 56 cm is not supported by the catalogue and is recorded here only as a variant in circulation. - **Object type:** Painting - **Period:** Italian, High Renaissance, early sixteenth century - **Current location:** Missing since January 1945. The picture was last documented at the Morawa (Muhrau) palace in Lower Silesia, and no verified sighting since has been established. The Princes Czartoryski Museum in Krakow displays an empty frame in its place. - **Attribution:** disputed ## Summary A portrait panel of about 1513-14, given to Raphael, bought in Italy by Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski at the very end of the eighteenth century and shown in Krakow from 1882 as one of the three treasures of the Princes Czartoryski Museum, beside Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine and Rembrandt's Landscape with the Good Samaritan. All three were hidden at Sieniawa in August 1939 and all three were seized by the German occupation authorities. Two came back. This one did not.The Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage traces it from Sieniawa to Jaroslaw, to a Berlin bank vault, back to Krakow for Hans Frank and then to two country houses in Lower Silesia in the last winter of the war. Its documented trail ends at the Morawa palace between 20 and 29 January 1945. Nothing verified has been recorded since, and it is by most published counts the most valuable painting still missing anywhere in the world.What survives is a photograph, a set of old engravings, a sixteenth-century copy in Bergamo and an empty frame on a wall in Krakow. This record sets out what is actually documented, what is only asserted and which registers do and do not carry it. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **c. 1513-14-late 18th century** Unrecorded, with a proposed early line through Giulio Romano and Federico II Gonzaga `[unknown]` (origin) The Polish Wikipedia entry reports an early ownership line running from Raphael's pupil Giulio Romano to Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and then to the Giustiniani family. No document supporting that line is cited in any source consulted for this record, and nearly three centuries are unaccounted for. It is recorded here as a gap, not a chain. - **late 18th century-c. 1798-1801** Giustiniani family, Italy `[disputed]` (ownership) The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage states that Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski bought this picture and Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine from the Giustiniani family in Italy; the Polish Wikipedia entry places them in Venice. The seller is consistent across the Polish sources; the date is not, and no price is recorded anywhere consulted. - **c. 1798-1801-1831** Princess Izabela Czartoryska and Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, Pulawy `[documented]` (purchase) Bought by Adam Jerzy, who was Russian ambassador to Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia in 1799 to 1801, for his mother's collection at Pulawy, and displayed in the Gothic House beside the Leonardo and the Rembrandt as one of the Great Three. Izabela Czartoryska's own catalogue entry describes the picture. Dates of 1798, 1799 to 1801 and 1801 all appear in the literature. - **1831-1843** Czartoryski family, in hiding and in transit `[documented]` (concealment) After the November Uprising the most valuable works were hidden in the basement of the Temple of the Sibyl, moved by night by the caretaker Franciszek Kozlowski to the Reformist monastery at Kazimierz, and in May 1832, with Daniel Ruprecht, Jozef Schmidt and the canon Pienkowski, taken to the Zamoyski estate at Klemensow and then to the Czartoryski palace at Sieniawa, where they were kept in an annex on the palace grounds. - **1843-1882** Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, then Prince Wladyslaw Czartoryski, Hotel Lambert, Paris `[documented]` (relocation) Adam Jerzy bought the Hotel Lambert in Paris in 1843 and had the collections brought there. Financial pressure led him to try to sell this painting: the ministry's account gives London in 1850, then Berlin for appraisal, and a return to Paris unsold in 1852; the Polish Wikipedia entry gives London in 1848 at an asking price of 15,000 francs and a return in 1851. Adam Jerzy died in 1861 and Wladyslaw inherited. - **1882-1914** Princes Czartoryski Museum, Krakow `[documented]` (public display) The Czartoryski Library was installed in a former armoury building in Krakow in December 1876; the ministry dates the arrival of the three paintings to 1882, after which they were on public display for about thirty years. Henryk Ochenkowski's museum catalogue of 1914 fixed the attribution to Raphael as the standard one. - **1914-1922** On deposit, Gemaldegalerie, Dresden `[documented]` (wartime deposit) Placed on deposit at Dresden by Maria Ludwika Czartoryska at the outbreak of the First World War. The ministry records that the gallery's director Hans Posse did what he could to prevent the deposit returning to a sovereign Poland, and that this picture did not reach Krakow again until 1922; the Polish Wikipedia entry gives 1920. - **1922-1939-08** Princes Czartoryski Museum, Krakow `[documented]` (public display) On display in Krakow beside Lady with an Ermine. Photographed by Stanislaw Mucha in 1930 and by the collections curator Stefan Komornicki in 1934. - **1939-08-1939-10** Czartoryski family, hidden at Sieniawa and then Pelkinie `[documented]` (evacuation) On the plan of the museum's director Marian Kukiel, the owner Augustyn Jozef Czartoryski and the curator Stefan Saturnin Komornicki moved the most prized works to Sieniawa in late August 1939 and hid them in the palace annex. German forces reached Sieniawa on 15 September; on 18 September the caretaker Zofia Szmit reported the hiding place plundered of jewellery and a royal coffer, the paintings still present. In late September the remaining works were allowed to move to Witold Czartoryski's palace at Pelkinie. - **1939-10-1939-11** Seized by the German occupation authorities; Kajetan Muhlmann, Jaroslaw and Krakow `[documented]` (confiscation) Seized by the Gestapo at Pelkinie in early October 1939 and taken to Jaroslaw, where Kajetan Muhlmann, appointed by Hermann Goring on 6 October 1939 as special representative for securing art in the occupied Polish territories, was stationed. Briefly held in a building of the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow. Entered as number 141 in the catalogue Sichergestellte Kunstwerke im General Gouvernement. - **1939-11-1943** Held in Berlin for the planned Fuhrermuseum at Linz `[documented]` (removal to Germany) In Berlin by November 1939, first in Muhlmann's office, on Eduard Plietzsch's post-war testimony, then at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, then in a safe deposit box at the Deutsche Bank branch at 27 Unter den Linden. Hans Posse's travel diary records the picture under 27 and 28 November 1939. Reserved for the Linz museum. The Leonardo went back to Krakow in 1940; this painting stayed in the Berlin vault, which the ministry reads as a move to keep it out of Goring's reach after his directive of 5 November 1940 on the division of seized collections. - **1943-1944-08** Hans Frank, Governor General, Krakow `[documented]` (transfer) Frank's art adviser Wilhelm Ernst von Palezieux, appointed 1942, organised the transports from Berlin and got the Great Three back to Krakow in mid-1943 for Frank's residences. The English-language Wikipedia entry treats Frank's Wawel residence as the picture's last recorded location; the Polish ministry's reconstruction does not stop there. - **1944-08-1945-01-20** German evacuation depot, Sichow (Seichau), Lower Silesia `[documented]` (evacuation) After the Red Army took Lviv in July 1944 Frank sent Palezieux to find a store in Lower Silesia; Manfred von Richthofen's palace at Sichow near Jawor was chosen. The ministry dates the picture's arrival there to about August 1944 on Palezieux's surviving notes and post-war testimony. The Austrian conservator Eduard Kneisel had charge of the works until January 1945. - **1945-01-20-1945-01-29** German deposit at the Morawa (Muhrau) palace, Lower Silesia `[documented]` (last documented location) Frank left Krakow on 17 January 1945; the collection was moved from Sichow to the palace of Hans Christoph and Herta von Wietersheim-Kramsta at Morawa, arriving 20 January. A document of 23 January transferred care to the mayor Robert Schnitzler and to Wilhelm Dressler of the local National Socialist People's Welfare branch. On 25 January Frank's aide-de-camp Helmut Pfaffenroth removed twenty paintings including the Leonardo and the Rembrandt to Bavaria; this picture was left because of the size of its board and does not appear on the February 1945 Neuhaus inventory. Gunther Grundmann reached Morawa on 29 January and loaded three truckloads for Cieplice; by his journal, his post-war testimony and his recollections, this painting was not among them. - **1945-01-29-present** Unknown `[unknown]` (gap) No verified sighting since. The ministry concludes the picture must have disappeared while still in Lower Silesia, and notes that no American record, troop report or Allied art team file mentions it reaching Coburg or Neuhaus. Robert Kudelski argues it was taken from Morawa by German officials of lower rank after Pfaffenroth's convoy left, and that one vehicle became separated from that convoy. Leads since 1945 have been pursued in Switzerland, the United States, East Germany, Australia and the Soviet Union and none has produced the object, an authenticated photograph or a document. - **2016-12-29-present** Polish State Treasury, administered through the National Museum in Krakow `[documented]` (transfer of claim) On 29 December 2016 Piotr Glinski signed for the State Treasury with Prince Adam Karol Czartoryski and the Princes Czartoryski Foundation: 100 million euros for 86,000 museum objects, 250,000 library objects and the buildings, together with the Foundation's claims to cultural property lost in the Second World War, this painting named among them, and the Sieniawa palace and park. The picture itself was not transferred, because it has not been found; the claim to it was. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **** , - This painting has never been sold at auction and has been missing since January 1945. Every figure below is for a different work and is given only as the market cohort. The one price ever attached to this picture is an asking price: the Polish Wikipedia entry records that Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski sent it to London to be sold at 15,000 francs and that no buyer was found. - **2009-12-08** Christie's, Old Master and 19th Century Art, London - Estimate: Sold at about double the pre-sale estimate - Hammer: GBP 26,000,000 - With premium: GBP 29,200,000 - NOT THIS OBJECT. Raphael's Head of a Muse, a black chalk study for the Parnassus fresco in the Stanza della Segnatura. Bought by an anonymous telephone bidder. About 47.5 million US dollars on the day, then a record for any work on paper and among the highest prices ever paid at auction for an Old Master. - **2004-03** Private treaty sale to the National Gallery, London, - Estimate: GBP 35,000,000 offered by the J. Paul Getty Museum in September 2002, blocked by export stop - With premium: GBP 22,000,000 - NOT THIS OBJECT, AND NOT AN AUCTION. Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks, NG6596, oil on yew, 27.9 x 22.4 cm, bought from the 10th Duke of Northumberland's Wills Trust. The 22 million pound figure includes a government douceur and is therefore below the market price the Getty had offered; the difference is the tax relief that makes a private treaty sale to a domestic museum worth doing. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund at 11.5 million, the American Friends of the National Gallery at 10.5 million from John Paul Getty Junior's endowment, Sir Christopher Ondaatje at 1 million, the National Art Collections Fund at 400,000 and a public appeal at 70,000. The figure is entered under premium because there was no hammer. ## Exhibitions - Portret mlodzienca. W poszukiwaniu zaginionego arcydziela Rafaela (Portrait of a Young Man. In search of Raphael's lost masterpiece), 21 November 2019 to 19 January 2020. The lost picture was not shown; the Accademia Carrara copy was, with Jan Lievens's Portrait of a Young Man from Wawel and six engravings of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries., Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie (National Museum in Warsaw), with the National Museum in Krakow and Wawel Royal Castle, 2019-2020 - Lukasz Nawrocki's material reconstruction of the painting, made with early sixteenth-century materials and techniques, shown until 31 August 2021, Czartoryski Museum, Pulawy, 2021 - Powrot Rafaela (Return of Raphael): winning entries in an international competition built around the picture's empty frame, announced 8 December 2025, Princes Czartoryski Museum, Krakow, 2025 ## Literature - Rafaela Portret mlodzienca ze zbiorow Czartoryskich, in Rozprawy Muzeum Narodowego w Krakowie, vol. I; and The Czartoryski Portrait of a Youth by Raphael (1991) - Zaginiony Portret mlodzienca ze zbiorow XX. Czartoryskich (2003, 2004) - Zaginiony Rafael. Kulisy najwiekszej kradziezy nazistow (2014) - Catalogue of paintings removed from Poland by the German occupation authorities during the years 1939-1945, vol. 1, Foreign paintings, Ministry of Culture and Art, Warsaw 1950 - The Rape of Europa (1994) ## Open questions - What does the live Polish catalogue entry say now? The object is card 3095, museum inventory V-239, and the entry was read in an Internet Archive capture of 1 September 2025 because the catalogue's own domain refuses connections from this workstation. A read of the live page is still owed. - Is the empty frame displayed at the Princes Czartoryski Museum the picture's own historic frame? The English-language Wikipedia entry calls it the original frame and gives no source; the Polish entry's sentence about it carries a citation-needed tag. No museum source consulted states it either way. - What did Adam Jerzy Czartoryski actually pay for the painting, and in what year? Accounts give 1798, 1799 to 1801 and 1801, and no purchase price appears in any source consulted. - Did the picture leave London in 1848 or 1850, and did it return to Paris in 1851 or 1852? The Polish ministry's account and the Polish Wikipedia entry give different years for the same failed sale. - When did Wilhelm Ernst von Palezieux die? Rzeczpospolita places his fatal car accident in 1953, weeks before a planned meeting with Stefan Zamoyski; National Geographic Polska gives 1955. - Does INTERPOL's Stolen Works of Art Database carry a record for this object, and under what identifier? Full access is restricted to authorised users and no publicly citable entry could be confirmed. - Is the painting recorded in the FBI's National Stolen Art File? The file's page returned HTTP 403 to a plain request and could not be searched from here. - Who removed the painting from the Morawa palace between 20 and 29 January 1945? Robert Kudelski argues for German officials of lower rank after Helmut Pfaffenroth's convoy left, and notes that one vehicle became separated from that convoy, but the sources consulted name nobody. - Was the inscription Jerzy Miziolek reports on the frame of the Accademia Carrara copy ever on the lost panel's own frame, or is it a feature of the copy alone? Nothing in the sources consulted describes the original's frame. - Was the digitally cleaned Commons scan used as this record's second plate restored by hand or generatively? The uploader names no restorer and states no method. ## Sources - [1] J. Robert Kudelski, 'Portrait of a Young Man - the story of a lost painting', Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, wartime losses service. Read through the Internet Archive capture of 2 March 2024; the ministry's own domain refused HTTPS, timed out on HTTP with a browser user agent and could not be loaded in the in-app browser on 25 September 2026. - [2] Monuments Men and Women Foundation, 'Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) (1483-1520), Portrait of a Young Man (1513/14)', WWII Most Wanted Art. - [3] Wikipedia (Polish), 'Portret mlodzienca', consolidating the attribution dispute, the sitter candidates, the dimensions, the LRR crate and the photographic record. Tertiary; flagged for replacement with Janusz Walek's and Jozef Grabski's published studies. - [4] Wikipedia (English), 'Portrait of a Young Man (Raphael)'. Tertiary; used here only for the variant dimensions, the Lynn Nicholas valuation and the characterisation of the 2012 reports, and flagged for replacement. - [5] Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Kommentierte Online-Edition der funf Reisetagebucher Hans Posses (1939-1942), entry 'Raffaello, Sanzio: Portrat eines jungen Mannes', Krakow, 27-28 November 1939. - [6] Jerzy Miziolek, 'Portret mlodzienca. W poszukiwaniu zaginionego arcydziela Rafaela', Wszystko co Najwazniejsze. - [7] Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, exhibition page, 'Portret mlodzienca. W poszukiwaniu zaginionego arcydziela Rafaela', 21 November 2019 to 19 January 2020. - [8] Marek Kozubal, 'Gdzie jest Portret mlodzienca Rafaela Santi, zrabowany z kolekcji Czartoryskich', Rzeczpospolita, 27 April 2017, setting out Robert Kudelski's reconstruction and the table of post-war leads. - [9] National Geographic Polska, 'Na tropie Rafaela. Gdzie zniknal cenny portret warty ponad 100 mln dolarow?', 23 September 2023. - [10] dzieje.pl (Polish Press Agency), 'Nieznane losy zaginionego Portretu mlodzienca Rafaela Santi', 28 August 2012, updated 5 April 2017, on Robert Kudelski's archival findings. - [11] Money.pl / TOK FM, 'Portret mlodzienca Rafaela odnaleziony? Ministerstwo dementuje', 1 August 2012, quoting Professor Wojciech Kowalski and the ministry spokesman Marcin Bosacki. - [12] Center for Art Law, clipping of the 2 August 2012 report quoting a spokesman for the Office for the Restitution of Cultural Goods at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. - [13] Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego, communique on the purchase of the Princes Czartoryski collection, 29 December 2016, as published by Niezalezna, stating that the purchase covered claims to cultural property lost in the Second World War and naming this painting. - [14] Apollo Magazine, 'What the sale of the Czartoryski collection says about Poland today', on the 29 December 2016 agreement, the price and the criticism of it. - [15] Republic of Poland, gov.pl, 'Empty Frames - Unhealed Wounds of Polish Museums', on the empty frame in Krakow, the estimate of 516,000 works lost, the Catalogue of Wartime Losses and the state's commitment to keep searching. - [16] Lost Art Database, Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste. Searched directly on 25 September 2026 for Czartoryski (3 records, none this object) and for Bildnis eines jungen Mannes Raffael (6 records, none this object). The painting has no entry. - [17] INTERPOL, Stolen Works of Art Database. Nearly 57,000 items; full access restricted to authorised users, public access through the ID-Art application, with no publicly citable per-object URL identified. - [18] Lexikon der oesterreichischen Provenienzforschung, 'Muhlmann, Kajetan', on his appointment by Goring on 6 October 1939, the Polish and Dutch operations, his 1945 arrest and interrogation, his 1948 escape from Austrian custody and his death in Munich in 1958. - [19] Wikimedia Commons file page and API metadata for the reproduction taken from Wladyslaw Tomkiewicz, Catalogue of paintings removed from Poland by the German occupation authorities during the years 1939-1945, vol. 1, Foreign paintings, Ministry of Culture and Art, Warsaw 1950. Licence verified as Public domain on 25 September 2026. - [20] Wikimedia Commons file page and API metadata for the Accademia Carrara copy, giving inventory 446, oil on canvas, 77 x 62 cm. Licence verified as Public domain on 25 September 2026. - [21] Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie, press release, 'Powrot Rafaela: renesans kontra kultura selfie. Prace laureatow konkursu w MNK Muzeum Czartoryskich', 8 December 2025. - [22] dzieje.pl, 'Jedyna na swiecie rekonstrukcja Portretu Mlodzienca Rafaela do konca sierpnia w Muzeum Czartoryskich w Pulawach', 26 August 2021, on Lukasz Nawrocki's reconstruction. - [23] Associated Press, 'Raphael drawing sells for $48m at UK auction', 9 December 2009, via Boston.com, on the Christie's sale of Head of a Muse at 26 million pounds hammer and 29.2 million pounds with fees. - [24] The National Gallery, London, catalogue entry for Raphael, 'The Madonna of the Pinks', NG6596, with the 2002 export stop, the 2004 purchase price including a government douceur and the list of contributors. - [25] Wikipedia (English), 'Raphael', for the biography, the training under Perugino, the Roman appointments, the size of the workshop and the securely dated Roman portraits. Tertiary; flagged for replacement with Vasari in a scholarly edition and a modern monograph. - [26] Veterum Sapientia Institute, 'Cardinal Pietro Bembo: The Renaissance Humanist Who Shaped Italian and Latin Style', giving the Latin text of Bembo's epitaph for Raphael in the Pantheon and an English rendering. - [27] Wikipedia (English), 'Lady with an Ermine', for the parallel wartime chain and the 1945 recovery at Schliersee. Tertiary; flagged. - [28] Wikipedia (English), 'Landscape with the Good Samaritan', for the Rembrandt's medium, dimensions and recovery through Karol Estreicher. Tertiary; flagged. - [29] Wikipedia (English), 'Portrait of Bindo Altoviti', for the Washington picture's date, medium, dimensions and provenance. Tertiary; flagged for replacement with the National Gallery of Art's own catalogue entry, whose page returned HTTP 403 to both a plain request and a browser user agent on 25 September 2026. - [30] Polish Art Corner, 'Rafael Santi - Portret mlodzienca - miedzioryt', 26 November 2019, on the Paulus Pontius engraving after the composition, its third state and its inscription, offered as lot 5808 at Bassenge on 27 November 2019 with an estimate of 600 euros. - [31] Wikimedia Commons file page and API metadata for the cleaned archival scan used as the lead plate. Licence verified as Public domain on 25 September 2026; the credit line names the Republic of Poland, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, wartime losses material. - [32] Wikipedia (English), 'Czartoryski Museum', for the museum's foundation, the Hotel Lambert, the number of objects missing since the war and the December 2019 reopening. Tertiary; flagged. Note that it gives the 2016 purchase price as 105 million euros where the ministry's own communique gives 100 million. - [33] Catalogue of Wartime Losses, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, object entry for Portret mlodzienca, Rafael wl. Raffaello Santi: Nr karty 3095, Dzial Malarstwo obce, Data powstania 1514, Material deska parkietowana, Technika olej, Wlasciciel Muzeum XX Czartoryskich w Krakowie, Nr inwentarza V-239, Wysokosc 75.00 cm, Szerokosc 59.00 cm, Odzyskane: nie. The live page is at dzielautracone.gov.pl/katalog-strat-wojennych/obiekt?obid=3095 and was found by domain-scoped search; the domain itself refuses connections from this workstation, so the entry was read in the Internet Archive capture of 1 September 2025. - [34] Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego, 'Restytucja dobr kultury', gov.pl, stating that nearly 800 objects have been returned to their home collections and that the wartime losses database holds about 70,000 records. - [35] Wikipedia (English), 'Portrait of Pietro Bembo (Raphael)', for the Budapest picture: c. 1504, oil on wood, 54 x 69 cm, Museum of Fine Arts Budapest, with the debate over whether the sitter is Bembo. Tertiary; flagged. - [36] Wikipedia (Polish), 'Portret mlodzienca (obraz Rafaela)', the article on the Budapest picture, dated c. 1508, oil on panel, 54 x 69 cm, Museum of Fine Arts Budapest, carrying a mutual hatnote with the article on the Czartoryski picture. Tertiary; cited for the title collision. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.