A report in the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza quoted an audit, which underscored a significant oversight, with the museum having conducted reviews on merely 1.4 percent of its vast collection of 741,600 items from 2019 to 2023.
The Supreme Audit Office's findings indicate a lapse in compliance with cultural regulations that mandate inventory reviews every five years. "The deadline for carrying out a commission inspection of the compliance of the entries of the registration documentation with the actual state of the collection was not met," Gazeta Wyborcza said.
In response to the inventory gaps, the museum's chief inventory officer resigned, and his successor, appointed by the new management under Culture Minister Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, did not remain in the position long. Monika Bala, a spokesperson for the museum, conveyed that efforts to locate the missing items have yielded some success, with objects found in different museum locations or identified through corrections in archival documentation.
"They were located in other locations of the museum or, based on archival documentation, errors were found in earlier records and protocols, resulting in some of the museum's artifacts being mistakenly declared missing," Bala explained.
Despite these challenges, Bala stresses the multifaceted responsibilities of the museum staff, from curating exhibitions to supporting research and educational initiatives, all while managing the inventory.
"Due to limited staff resources, the MNW would not want to temporarily suspend these activities in favor of quickly completing all the contraptions," she stated, acknowledging the slow progress in verifying the museum's nearly one-million-year-old collection.
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Source: PAP, Gazeta Wyborcza