Talk:Czartoryski Museum

Former Russian Foreign Minister Sentenced to Death by the Tsar?
Piotrus, these sources seem to perpetrate some urban legends or shall we say nationalist mythology. 258 most active rebels were indeed sentenced to death, but the capital punishment was instantly commuted to "exile abroad". I don't know whether Czartoryski was one of those rebels, but it seems clear that there was no danger to his life in the Russian Empire. --Ghirla-трёп- 13:58, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Ghirla, I don't know what the Russian article states, but we have plenty of sources that Czartoryski was sentenced to death:

It's quite possible that the sentence was later convinced to exile, but the sources imply that he left the country fleeing for his life and couldn't return later one way or another. I see nothing dubious in the current fragment. If your source states that the death penalty was changed later to exile, just add it to the article - I don't see why this would be problematic. But you yourself admit that he was at first sentenced to death, so what's dubious? PS. Anyway, since this is an article about a museum, not the prince, we can settle on some compromise wording here and move all the details about death sentence, exile and emmigration to his bio, perhaps?--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 17:29, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Czartoryski Museum: "He was condemned to death by the Russians after the 1830 insurrection and forced to flee across Europe"
 * Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945: "After the fall of Insurrection, sentenced to death by Russians, he went into Exile."
 * Encyclopedia of Russian History: "However, the Russians crushed the rebellion, and Czartoryski was sentenced to death."

Perhaps we can. I don't see why his alleged death sentence should be mentioned in this article at all. As I understand, Czartoryski was accused of sedition, for which the capital punishment was due. The Tsar was unwilling to disturb public opinion of Europe, so he commuted the sentence to exile, as he would do in many other cases, e.g., Dostoevsky's. In this way he sought to demonstrate his forgiveness and magnanimity, despite the grave nature of the committed crimes which otherwise would have warranted execution. Dostoevsky demonstrated that this approach was inhumane, while Tolstoy exposed cant as the core of Nikolai's character. --Ghirla-трёп- 18:04, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I hope my changes are acceptable. Is the above text a translation of your source? Could you provide full reference details - I'd like to change them from elinks into footnotes, but as you know, unfortunatly I cannot read Russian.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 18:51, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Damage of the paintings by Nazi soldiers in 1939
"...although the Leonardo and other pictures were roughly handled, they were not damaged" - I'd say, they were. "The Lady with an ermine" has been quite severely damaged, as the left upper corner has been broken. Only because it didn't break in half (or something equally dramatic) it doesn't mean, that the picture was not damaged at all. DameMitHermelin (talk) 01:28, 5 February 2013 (UTC)