OPUSCULA HISTORIAE ARTIUM STUDIA MINORA FACULTATIS PHILOSOPHICAE UNIVERSITAT1S BRUNENS1S F 43 1999 MILENA BARTLOVA THE CASE OF BOHEMIAN ORIGIN CLAIMED FOR TWO SMALL PANEL PAINTINGS. There exist such movable works of medieval art which can be found today in some other country than the one of their origin. Identification of the country of origin represents an art-historical masterpiece in such cases when any other kind of information is missing. Theoretically, there were two ways of getting the artworks out of their home country: either as a result of activity of modern collectors or international art market, or sometimes before. The second group may be subdivided in many concrete situations: the work may have been or- dered from abroad (case in point being, e.g., the St. Barbara's altarpiece by Master Francke) or taken away by the owner shortly after execution (Portinari's Nativity altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes). The import during the Middle Ages could have been part of Christian cult (icons of Notre-Dame-de-Grace in Cambrai or Our Lady in Freising), but the crossing of borders could have hap- pened in the framework of early collectorship (Diirer's Rosenkranzmadonna). Finally, there should exist also the category of works executed by foreign artists residing temporarily outside of their home country (again the case of the Ro- senkranzmadonna). It may be rather difficult or even impossible to distinguish this last category from imports if we lack information from other sources. A possibility of sojourn of some foreign artist is supported, more reliably but still indirectly, by traces left by his style in wider local artistic production. Identification of artworks of Bohemian origin abroad was often based by pa- triotism inherited from the era when Czech art history has defended the position of Bohemian art against the demands of Greater Germany. Even today, e.g. the scholarly discussion on appropriation of some prominent statues of the "Beautiful Style" around 1400 seems often to take place in the one hundred years old atmosphere of anti-Habsburg resistance. Between the wars, there sur- faced on the German and Austrian art market several Gothic paintings and sculptures that were identified as Bohemian without much scholarly debate and Vincenc Kramaf was very active in buying such artworks for the Czechoslovak public collection of old art: e.g., the panel with the so-called Madonna Ara-