The discovery of a stamp in Polish on Immanuel Kant’s book offered by French President Emmanuel Macron to Pope Francis has provoked an avalanche of comments, sometimes hostile, in Poland. But this nervousness was not justified, according to the Parisian bookseller who sold the book at the Elysee.
A rarity looted by the Nazis?
The photos on the front page of the first French edition of Towards perpetual peace of the Prussian philosopher – an edition dated 1796 – reveals a stamp of the “Lviv Academic Reading Room”. We can also see the seal in this photo shared Monday by the correspondent of The cross in Rome.
Polish media and Internet users immediately suspected that the book might have been stolen by the German Nazis who occupied this city, which had belonged to Poland until World War II and now belongs to Ukraine. The matter has gone viral on the web and the French president’s gesture has been described as “strange”, “shameful”, even insulting to Poland, according to the most aggressive Internet users. The Polish Foreign Ministry took a reserved position, saying only that it was “in the know.”
The bookseller’s denial
Contacted by AFP, Patrick Hatchuel, a Parisian bookseller specializing in old and rare books, whose name was given in the context of this case by a Swiss journalist, Arnaud Bédat. Patrick Hatchuel has confirmed that he sold Kant’s book to the French presidency.
“The history of this volume shows that it cannot come from Nazi looting. I have no doubts about that and, being a Jew, I am sensitive to the question. A library in Lviv, from which it came sometime between 1850 and 1870, probably with reason for a sale,” he said. “Then he came to France. And he was in Paris around 1900 with a well-known bookseller, Lucien Bodin, who was a specialist in esotericism. A printed label attests to this. The last provenance is a private collector who bought half a century ago. And his son sold it to me. There is no problem with that, everything is verifiable, “added Patrick Hatchuel.
A closed reading room in 1939
Patrick Hatchuel indicated “having made a price” at the Elysée Palace, lower than the list price of 2,500 euros, and specified that he had been questioned by the Polish government to specify the origin of the book.
According to a website specialized in Lviv consulted by AFP, the “Academic Reading Room” was not part of the University of Lviv, but was an important society of students and researchers of Polish nationality, founded in 1867 and active until 1939.
Source: BFM TV
