Before the museum hall
Though the palace survived the war in relatively good condition, its interiors were not so fortunate. During the war, the Żagań Palace served as the "Central Warehouse of Artistic Items of the Third Reich", to which artworks looted by Hitler's troops from all over Europe were transported. Thus, paintings, sculptures, and other valuable items were amassed. Towards the end of the Second World War, the Germans began to evacuate the palace's contents. They packed approximately seventy crates. It is likely that on the eleventh of October, nineteen forty-four, they loaded twenty-three crates with artworks, and that very night, accompanied by a patrol of two motorcycles with machine guns, they left Żagań. The fate of the remaining forty-seven crates remains unknown. However, not everything was taken. They failed to relocate manuscripts from Goethe, Schiller, Stendhal, Victor Hugo, music scores from Beethoven, Liszt, Wagner... Where is the unique collection of letters and manuscripts of Princess Dorota de Talleyrand – Périgord? To this day, many issues remain a mystery as not everything has been clarified. In the ground floor of the palace, a small storage area was created, where remnants of palace furnishings were stored: fragments of furniture and a small number of books.
The city was still smoldering when Soviet soldiers also contributed to further devastation. Regrettably, the post-war history of the Żagań Palace is marked by looting and thoughtless vandalism. Even though on the nineteenth of November, nineteen forty-five, the first post-war mayor, Franciszek Walter, took over the management of the princely palace, issued a decree on the protection of the remnants of the palace's furnishings, and established a castle guard, it was not possible to effectively control people wandering through the rooms, who took anything that might please them. As a result, very little of its former furnishings has survived to this day.
The city was still smoldering when Soviet soldiers also contributed to further devastation. Regrettably, the post-war history of the Żagań Palace is marked by looting and thoughtless vandalism. Even though on the nineteenth of November, nineteen forty-five, the first post-war mayor, Franciszek Walter, took over the management of the princely palace, issued a decree on the protection of the remnants of the palace's furnishings, and established a castle guard, it was not possible to effectively control people wandering through the rooms, who took anything that might please them. As a result, very little of its former furnishings has survived to this day.