History
A few weeks prior to the outbreak of the Second World War and the German occupation of Poland, the Poles took the altar apart and stored its main statues in crates dispersed across the country. The crates were located by a Nazi unit called the Sonderkommando Paulsen, plundered and transported to the Third Reich, likely to Berlin. The panels were also found and sent to Germany. They were put in the basement of the Nuremberg Castle. At the castle, Polish prisoners sent messages to members of the Polish resistance that the revered altar was hidden there. The altar survived the war in spite of heavy bombardment of Nuremberg and was returned to Poland in 1946, where it underwent major restoration. It was put back at St. Mary's Basilica in 1957.
The altar was restored several times in its history, not only after the end of World War II. For the first time, it was renovated before 1600, then in 1866–1870, 1932–1933, 1946–1949 and finally, in 1999. St. John Cantius in Chicago, a historic church in the 'Polish Cathedral' style contains a detailed copy of this masterpiece. This one-third scale copy is the largest and most detailed work of its kind, and was commissioned in 2003 as a tribute to the Galician immigrants who founded the parish in 1893.
Read more about this topic: Altarpiece Of Veit Stoss
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