POLAND: The Prince & the Portrait

In weddings, duels and state councils, Radziwills and Potockis, two of Poland’s oldest, richest families, have faced each other for centuries. When, in the 18th Century, Charles Radziwill owned scores of towns and 600 villages. Felix Potocki had 130,000 peasants and 600,000 acres. Krystyna Radziwill had a play written in honor of her marriage, and Joseph Potocki’s funeral was attended by ten bishops and 1,275 priests; 20 pieces of cannon used up 65,000 pounds of gunpowder in a wake that lasted six days.

But even in Poland, times change. Last week 22-year-old Andrew Potocki and his dark-haired bride of three months were caught loading the Potocki art collection (including a Madonna and Child and St. John by Andrea del Sarto) into trucks in the dead of night.*

Andrew and his wife were arrested, charged with trying to take national treasures from the country. The pictures were carted to the Ministry of Security, where Prince Christopher Radziwill, one of the few aristocrats to join the Communist-dominated government, watched them being uncrated. A Potocki and a Radziwill were face to face again when they came to the portrait of wrinkled, unlovely Isabella Potocka. Said Prince Radziwill to his leftist companions: “Look, there’s Aunt Izzy.”

* Even in adversity the Potocki’s always cherished the arts. Wrote Countess Anna Potocka, a contemporary of Marie Antoinette: “When we had no money we sold our diamonds to buy marbles and bronzes.”