Ściana w budynku Muzeum POLIN.
Fot. Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich

Statute

The statute of POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews [PDF]

Chapter 1
General Provisions

§ 1.

The Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, hereinafter referred to as the "Museum", operates in particular pursuant to:

  1. the Act of 25 October 1991 on the Organization and Pursuit of Cultural Activity (Journal of Laws of 2017, item 862), hereinafter referred to as the "Act on the Organization and Pursuit of Cultural Activity" to the extent to which it is applicable to the institutions of culture established pursuant to Article 21 Section 2 of the Act on the Organization and Pursuit of Cultural Activity;
  2. the Act of 21 November 1996 on Museums (Journal of Laws of 2017 , item 972), hereinafter referred to as the "Act on Museums", to the extent to which it is applicable to the institutions of culture established pursuant to Article 21 Section 2 of the Act on the Organization and Pursuit of Cultural Activity;
  3. the Agreement of 25 January 2005 on Establishing the Cultural Institution Named Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich Polin [the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews], hereinafter referred to as the "Agreement";
  4. Statute.

§ 2.

  1. The founders of the Museum are the capital city of Warsaw, hereinafter referred to as the "City", and the minister competent for the matters of culture and conservation of national heritage, hereinafter referred to as the "Minister", jointly referred to as the "Organizers", and Stowarzyszenie Żydowski Instytut Historyczny w Polsce [The Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland] with its registered office in Warsaw, hereinafter referred to as the "Association". The City, the Minister and the Association are hereinafter jointly referred to as the "Founders".
  2. The Museum is an institution of culture established by the Founders pursuant to Article 21 Section 2 of the Act on the Organization and Pursuit of Cultural Activity.
  3. The Museum has legal personality and is entered into the register of the institutions of culture kept by the Minister under the number RIK 89/2014.
  4. The registered office of the Museum shall be the capital city of Warsaw and the area of its activity shall be the territory of the Republic of Poland and abroad.
  5. The Museum may use the following abbreviated name form: "Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich" [the Museum of the History of Polish Jews]

Chapter 2
Scope of the Museum Activity

§ 3.

  1. The object of the Museum activity shall be to present the history of Jews in the historical territories of the Republic of Poland, also in Warsaw, and to support the activities meant to educate the young generation in the spirit of mutual tolerance and respect for the Jewish tradition and culture.
  2. The Museum shall conduct its activity especially by:
    1. collecting artifacts related to the Jewish tradition and culture;
    2. cataloging and academic description of collected exhibits;
    3. storing the exhibits under conditions that ensure their proper conservation and safety as well as storing them in the manner that permits access to them for academic purposes;
    4. securing and conserving the exhibits;
    5. lending and accepting artifacts for deposit in accordance with binding regulations;
    6. making the accumulated collections available through scientific, educational and exhibition activity;
    7. supporting and conducting artistic and culture popularization activity, also by organizing concerts, performances, public discussions, film and multimedia shows;
    8. developing, publishing and disseminating publications within its field of activity; 9) maintaining a book and media library for educational purposes;
    9. encouraging and undertaking the activity devoted to the popularization of the Jewish history and culture and its links with the Polish and European history and culture;
    10. conducting research.
  3. The Museum may conduct its operations by cooperating with Polish and foreign cultural, educational and scientific institutions, bodies of government and self-government administration, nongovernmental organizations, the media and other persons and organizational units, including the units without legal personality.
  4. The Museum shall collect in particular:
    1. the works of art referring to the heritage of the Polish Jews, Polish-Jewish history and remembrance, created both in Poland and abroad, including contemporary works of art;
    2. historical mementos related to the history of the Polish Jews, in particular: personal documents, photographs, letters, commemorative albums, pamphlets, postcards and keepsakes constituting elements of cultural life;
    3. religious objects used in synagogues [synagogalia], objects related to Judaism and religious tradition;
    4. historiographical texts, especially the texts created as an element of preparing permanent and temporary exhibitions, the texts published by the Museum or in collaboration with the Museum;
    5. results of preliminary research of sources conducted by the Museum as an element of the works related to the Museum activity;
    6. museum databases providing scientific information, especially bibliographies, databases of historical addresses, address lists and name lists;
    7. digitized iconography and films referring to the past of the Polish Jews and to the present time, in particular scanned photographs, drawings, plans, drafts [and] maps documenting a given topic, place or person;
    8. oral history resources, especially audio and video recordings, film materials derivative of the recordings made and their transcripts.

Chapter 3
Managing Body

§ 4.

  1. The Museum shall be managed and represented before third parties by its director.
  2. The Director shall be appointed and dismissed by the Organizer keeping the register into which the Museum is entered, in consultation with the other Organizer and having obtained the consent of the Association, with due regard for the procedure specified in the Act on the Organization and Pursuit of Cultural Activity.
  3. If the Director's function is vacant, the Organizer keeping the register may appoint an acting Director for a period not exceeding twelve months.
  4. Performance of any of the acts falling within the scope of the labor law in relation to the Director on behalf of the Museum shall be the power of the Organizer keeping the register into which the Museum is entered.
  5. The Director shall be responsible for proper performance of the activity specified in the Statute and for proper management of the Museum property and funds.
  6. The scope of the Director's activity shall include in particular:
    1. supervision over the collections and their inventorying as well as over the Museum property;
    2. presentation, to competent institutions and the Founders, of the works and expenditures schedules, financial reports and applications;
    3. supervision over editing the Museum publications;
    4. issuing orders;
    5. supervision over internal audit;
    6. performance of the powers of the entity which has established the library, as set forth in separate laws and regulations;
    7. entering and terminating contracts of employment with the Museum employees and taking decisions resulting from industrial relations;
    8. creating the conditions which enable planning and performance of defense and crisis management tasks in the Museum as set forth in separate laws and regulations.

§ 5.

Upon the consent of the Association, the Organizers may entrust a natural or legal person with the Museum management on the terms and in the manner specified in applicable regulations. In such a case the provisions of § 4 Section 2 shall apply. 

§ 6.

  1. The Director shall be assisted in the Museum management by three deputy [directors].
  2. Deputy [directors] shall be appointed and dismissed by the Director upon the consent of the Founders.

§ 7.

  1. The internal organization of the Museum and the scope of duties of individual organizational units shall be defined in Organizational Regulations granted by the Director with due regard for applicable laws and regulations.
  2. Any amendment to the Organizational Regulations shall be adopted in the manner specified in Section 1.

§ 8.

  1. The Director shall have the power to perform legal transactions on behalf of the Museum and to make statements concerning the Museum financial and property rights and obligations.
  2. The Director may appoint attorneys in fact, specifying the scope of proxy, to perform legal transactions on behalf of the Museum.
  3. Granting and revoking a power of attorney shall be subject to disclosure in the register of the institutions of culture kept by the Minister, except for the powers of attorney ad litem.

Chapter 4
Supervisory Bodies and Advisory Bodies

§ 9.

  1. The Museum shall be supervised by the Organizer keeping the register into which the Museum is entered in consultation with the other Founders.
  2. The Founders shall keep the right of independent auditing of asset management by the Museum.

§ 10.

  1. The Museum Council operates at the Museum.
  2. The Museum Council:
    1. provides supervision over the fulfillment by the Museum of its duties regarding the collections and the society, in particular over the performance of the following objectives:
      1. collection and permanent conservation of natural and cultural heritage of tangible and intangible nature,
      2. providing information on values and content of accumulated exhibits,
      3. popularization of the basic values of both Polish and World history, science and culture,
      4. shaping both cognitive and aesthetic sensitivity and enabling use of the exhibits;
    2. evaluation, based on annual reports on the Museum activity presented by its Director, of the operations of the Museum and providing its opinion on annual business plan submitted by the Director.
  3. The term of office of the Museum Council members shall be four years.

§ 11.

  1. The Museum Council shall be comprised of 15 members.
  2. The members of the Museum Council shall be appointed and dismissed by the Organizer keeping the register into which the Museum is entered, in consultation with the other Organizer and having obtained the consent of the Association, with the reservation that:
    1. 5 members of the Museum Council shall be appointed from among the candidates proposed by the entities referred to in article 11 section 5 of the Act on Museums designated by the Organizer keeping the register into which the Museum is entered;
    2. 5 members of the Museum Council shall be appointed from among the candidates proposed by the entities referred to in article 11 section 5 of the Act on Museums designated by the other Organizer;
    3. 5 members of the Museum Council shall be appointed from among the candidates designated by the Association.

§ 12.

  1. The Chairman of the Museum Council shall be elected from among its members.
  2. Resolutions of the Museum Council shall be adopted by a simple majority of votes with the participation of minimum one half of the members of the Museum Council as provided for by the Statute. Voting by postal ballot shall be acceptable.
  3. A detailed operational procedure for the Museum Council shall be specified in the regulations adopted by the Council.
  4. Administrative and office services for the Museum Council shall be provided by the Museum.

§ 13.

  1. The Director may appoint, at his/her own initiative or at the request of no less than one half of the museologists employed at the Museum, collective advisory bodies which can be permanent in nature or be appointed for implementation of a specific task. Appointing an collective body, the Director shall specify its object of activity and number of its members.
  2. The members of a collective body shall include the people appointed by the Director from among the employees of the Museum or third parties.
  3. A collective body shall provide opinions on the issues constituting its object of activity.
  4. The decisions of such collective bodies shall be adopted by a simple majority in the presence of at least half of its members.
  5. The Chairman of a collective body shall be elected from among its members.
  6. Administrative and office services for collective bodies shall be provided by the Museum.

Chapter 5
Financial Management of the Museum

§ 14.

  1. The Museum financial management shall follow the standards specified in the Act on the Organization and Pursuit of Cultural Activity and other applicable laws and regulations.
  2. The basis for the Museum financial management shall be a financial plan for the Museum defined by the Director with due regard for the amount of subsidies provided by the Organizers and the funds provided by the Association.
  3. The financial plan for the Museum should be drawn up in accordance with the provisions of the Act of 27 August 2009 on Public Finance (Journal of Laws of 2016, item 1870, as amended.3 ), within the time limits and in the manner as provided for in the legal regulations applicable to the Organizers.
  4. The objectives following from the scope of the Museum activity shall be pursued with the use of the Museum assets.

§ 15.

The funds necessary for pursuing the Museum activity shall be provided by the Organizers in the form of specified-user subsidies and by the Association in the form provided for by the law.

§ 16.

The sources of the Museum operations financing shall be the following:

  1. subsidies provided by the Organizers, including:
    1. specified-user subsidies for financing current operations in the scope of performed statutory activities, including preventive and corrective facility maintenance,
    2. designated subsidies for financing or co-financing of investment expenditures,
    3. designated subsidies for the implementation of specific tasks and programs;
  2. the funds received from the Association;
  3. income from conducted activity, including the sale of movable assets;
  4. the amendments to the consolidated text of the said act were published in the Journal of Laws of 2016, items 1948, 1984 and 2260 and of 2017, items 60, 191, 659, 933 and 935. 7/7 ;
  5. income from lease and rental of assets; 5) subsidies from the budget of local self-government units;
  6. the funds received from natural and legal persons and from other sources.

§ 17.

The Director shall ensure timely preparation of annual financial reports, their obligatory auditing by a chartered auditor and submitting them to the Minister for his/her approval.

Chapter 6
Additional Activity

§ 18.

  1. With the objective of financing its operations referred to in § 3, the Museum may conduct additional business activity on the terms specified in applicable laws and regulations.
  2. The acceptable business activity may include:
    1. sale of publications and souvenirs;
    2. paid organization of cultural, scientific, educational events, shows, performances, conferences and other meetings;
    3. tourism management;
    4. performing expert's reports or providing publication services;
    5. lease of exhibitions and documentary materials;
    6. conservation, reproduction or research services;
    7. lease of the Museum premises;
    8. publication and distribution of publications within its field of activity.

Chapter 7
Final Provisions

§ 19.

Merger, division or liquidation of the Museum shall be performed by the Organizers, having obtained the Association's consent, on the terms and in the manner set forth by binding laws and regulations.

§ 20.

An amendment to this Statute shall require unanimous consent of all the Founders.