Details of the financial scandal, now under investigation by Polish prosecutors, were published in Monday’s edition of Gazeta Wyborcza.
The building, located at 64A Powsińska Street in the Mokotów district of Warsaw, was bought in 2022 for over 21 million PLN (€5.03 million / $5.19 million) using funds from the Ministry of Culture.
Journalists obtained documents from Poland’s National Revenue Administration, which revealed that the museum had never actually been established during an audit that began in May 2024.
“We found numerous irregularities, but at first, we didn’t realize that the museum that was supposed to be created here was a complete fiction,” one of the auditors told Gazeta Wyborcza.
Polish prosecutors investigate alleged fraud under PiS government
PiS-era Culture Minister Piotr Gliński allocated public funds for the building’s purchase, despite a lack of any concrete plan for the museum and negative opinions from ministry experts.
The Roman Dmowski and Ignacy Jan Paderewski Institute of National Thought, which made the purchase, designated the building as the future home of the Christian-National Heritage Museum, but the institution was never formally established or registered.
Millions wasted on a museum that never opened
After the acquisition, it turned out that the building required renovations costing 10 million PLN (€2.39 million / $2.47 million), and further estimates projected that converting it into a museum would require an additional 42 million PLN (€10.06 million / $10.38 million).
The entire transaction raised suspicions within the tax office, which subsequently filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office, alleging possible criminal activity by Jan Żaryn, one of the officials involved.
Source: Gazeta Wyborcza/IAR/X/@GasewiczJarek
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