The book offered by Emmanuel Macron to Pope Francis creates controversy in Poland
Pope Francis and French President Emmanuel Macron during an audience on October 24, 2022 at the Vatican.
© VATICAN MEDIA via REUTERS
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
On a visit to Rome, the French president offered the sovereign pontiff on Monday, October 24, a copy of the first edition of
Towards perpetual peace
by the philosopher Emmanuel Kant.
The problem is that the book would belong to Poland.
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Emmanuel Macron, a trafficker of works?
This is the question posed by a Polish Internet user after
the visit of the French president to the Vatican
and the delivery to Pope Francis of an original edition of 1796 of
Towards perpetual peace
by Immanuel Kant.
In question, the stamp of the "Academic Reading Room of Lviv" which appears on the first page.
The book is believed to belong to Poland, as Lviv was within the country's borders before World War II.
Polish media and Internet users immediately suspected that the book could have been stolen by the German Nazis who occupied this city which belonged to Poland until the Second World War and now belongs to Ukraine.
The case went viral on the web and the gesture of the French president was described as "
strange
", "
embarrassing
", even insulting for Poland, according to the most aggressive Internet users.
The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs adopted a reserved position, confining itself to saying that it was “
in the know
”.
But a Parisian bookseller specializing in old and rare books, whose name was given in the context of this affair, confirmed to AFP that he had sold Kant's book to the French presidency.
“
The history of this volume shows that it cannot come from spoliation by the Nazis.
It comes from a library in Lviv, which it left somewhere between 1850 and 1870, probably on the occasion of a sale
”, specified Patrick Hatchuel.
According to him, it is then that the work arrives in France.
Around 1900, he was in Paris with a bookseller specializing in esotericism.
“
A printed label attests to
this,” says Patrick Hatchuel, who bought the book from the son of a private collector who acquired it half a century ago.
"
There is no problem about it, everything is verifiable
," he assures.
Patrick Hatchuel confides "
having made a price
" at the Élysée, lower than the list price of 2,500 euros.
(
With
AFP)
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