ZAGREB, September 20, 2019 – The Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland was presented to Rumjana and Mate Meštrović, heirs to Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović, at a ceremony at the Polish Embassy in Zagreb on Thursday.
Rumjana and Mate Meštrović received the high state decoration for their long-standing cooperation with Poland, which last year was crowned with their donation of a bust of Polish statesman Jozef Pilsudski, a work by sculptor Ivan Meštrović.
Meštrović made a 25-metre statue of Pilsudski, Poland’s prime minister from 1926 to 1935, but he never finished his work due to the start of World War II.
Polish Ambassador Andrzej Jasionowski commended at today’s ceremony the initiative of the Mestrovic family, who as heirs to the bequest of the world-famous sculptor donated the Polish people his work of art, thus contributing to the cooperation between Poland and Croatia.
The Pilsudski bust was made in 1939 and was to have been erected together with the rest of the monument in Warsaw.
The donated bust of Jozef Pilsudski is now located in the lobby of the Polish Embassy in Zagreb.
More news about relations between Croatia and Poland can be found in the Politics section.
