Bloch Family Foundation
While in existence informally for nearly twenty years, the Bloch Foundation was legally registered as a New York State non-for profit corporation, in September of 2006, after the New York State Department of Education, in conjunction with the State University of New York, formally approved its objective.
The main goal of the Foundation is the restitution of Polish works of art and objects related to the Polish national heritage, lost due to the historical events after the First Partition of Poland in 1772. Other objectives of the Foundation include the promotion of Polish history, art and culture, with a special emphasis on Polish militaria, rare books and coins/exonumia, as well as the highlighting of the contributions of members of the Ogonczyk-Bloch family, one of the oldest noble families of Poland, to the development of Polish art, culture and history.
The Bloch Foundationhas collaborated, for years, with different museums and other cultural institutions in Poland, bestowing on them, without unnecessary publicity, some of the valuable objects from its splendid collection. Insofar as in a formal and legal sense, the Bloch Foundation is the possessor of all its restituted objects, it deems itself to be merely a depository or a temporary custodian, rather than an owner.
In May of 2011, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, Mr. Bogdan Zdrojewski honored Mr. Bloch with a medal "Meritorious for Polish Culture". In September of 2014, the President of Poland, Bronislaw Komorowski, awarded him with a Chevalier's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland for the outstanding achievements in the field of preservation of the national heritage of Poland.
Below, we present a catalogue of objects related to the 1863 January Uprising, on the 150th Anniversary of the Uprising.