Considered a casualty of WWII after Hitler’s marauding forces invaded and attempted to destroy the pavilion, the beautiful blue and white Dutch tiles with depictions of trees and shepherds disappeared.

Then, just ahead of an exhibition at the end of April this year about Polish nobleman and writer Stanisław Lubomirski, who had commissioned the original building, staff at Warsaw’s Royal Łazienki Museum received the mysterious package from Canada.

Inside they found 12 of the original tiles which once decorated the pavilion walls. Posting on social media, the museum said: “A mysterious package, missing tiles and a happy ending.”

“This story is a ready-made script for a movie! After many years, the original Dutch ceramic tiles that decorated the interior of today's Palace on the Isle are returning to the Royal Łazienki Museum.”

“Some of them survived the fire of the Palace in 1944, some were scattered, and the missing ones were reconstructed after the war.”

“Unexpectedly, after many years, the museum received a shipment of original tiles from a mysterious sender from Canada who, just before his death, asked for their return.”

Known locally as the Palace on the Isle, in 1764 the estate was bought and expanded by King Stanisław August who converted the bathing pavilion into a classicist summer residence with an English garden.

In 2019 the palace was 11th on the list of most visited palaces in the world, attracting over 4.9 million visitors.

How or when the tiles ended up in Canada is unclear, but Poland’s Ministry of Culture says it is now looking into the matter.