The Czartoryski boasts the city's richest art collection, including Leonardo Da Vinci's 15th-century masterpiece, Lady with an Ermine (1489–90). Other exhibitions include Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Etruscan art as well as Turkish weaponry. The museum closed in 2010 for renovation and was set to reopen as a branch of the National Museum at the end of 2019. Until then, Lady with an Ermine is on display at the National Museum main branch.
Apart from the paintings, the museum itself has had its own exciting history. Secretly moved to Paris in 1830, the collection shifted to Kraków in the 1870s. During WWII, German occupiers seized many valuable paintings and took them to Germany. Some items were never recovered. The Polish state purchased the museum's vast holdings in 2016 for €100 million. This paved the way for the museum's current restoration and re-opening.
