Count Karol Lanckoroński (1848-1933) was a Polish art historian, art collector, patron, archaeologis

Count Karol Lanckoroński (1848-1933) was a Polish art historian, art collector, patron, archaeologist and traveler. He came from a Polish aristocratic family bearing the Zadora coat of arms whose roots go back to the 12th century. He was one of the wealthiest and most cultivated magnates in Austrian partition of Poland and in the whole of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. ■ Thanks to the strenuous efforts of Count Karol Lanckoroński and the Viceroy of Galicia Professor Count Leon Piniński, the Royal Castle of Wawel in Kraków was recovered from the Austrians. Together with Piniński he was actively involved in the renewal of both the Wawel Castle and the Wawel Cathedral, for which Lanckoroński founded the tombstone of Queen Jadwiga. In September 1884, Karol launched, organized and financed an archaeological expedition to Turkey. The result was published in a two-volume book issued in three languages, Polish, German and French, entitled “The Cities of Pamphylia and Pisidia”. The archaeological research of 1882-1884 brought Lanckoroński international recognition – he became a member of the German and Austrian Archaeological Institute in 1891 and of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1893.■ His art collection, estimated at more than 3,000 objects included paintings of the Italian, German, Austrian, French and Dutch schools, was partly inherited from his ancestors (including works from the former collection of King Stanisław August Poniatowski) but much of it was acquired by him personally. His collections also included works of ancient art (Greek, Roman, but also ancient Egyptian) which amount to about 1,000 objects, art and craft from China, India and Japan, as well as porcelain, tapestries, coins and miniatures. In the years 1994 and 2000 his daughter Karolina Lanckorońska, donated her family’s art collection to various Polish cultural institutions. -- source link

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