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On 30 April, the transfer ceremony of the archive of the Baltrušaitis family was held at Vilnius Picture Gallery. Archival documents and objects that are significant to Lithuania and its diplomatic service were brought from Paris.

The Lithuanian Central State Archive received especially significant documents testifying to the establishment of the Republic of Lithuania: certified copies of the declaration of December 11 (1918) and the Act of February 16, unique documents of the Foreign Ministry from the first years of Lithuania’s Independence on relations with Poland, the Soviet Russia (later - with the U.S.S.R.) and other countries, correspondence regarding the coup d’état of 17 December 1926 and the Tauragė uprising 1927.

Documents collected by interwar Lithuanian poet, essayist, translator, diplomat Jurgis Baltrušaitis (1873-1944) were preserved by his son, art historian and diplomat Jurgis Baltrušaitis Jr. (1903-1988), who served as Counsellor for Cultural Affairs and Consul at the Lithuanian Legation in Paris until 1954. His son Jean Baltrušaitis transferred the archive to the State of Lithuania.

Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs transferred to the Lithuanian Art Museum the death mask of J.Baltrušaitis Senior and some of the remaining books from his library.

Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis, Director of the Lithuanian Central State Archive Dalius Žižys and Director of the Lithuanian Art Museum Romualdas Budrys signed respective acts of transfer and reception on the authentic table that belonged to Jurgis Baltrušaitis.

“This year, Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is marking the 20th anniversary of its re-establishment and aims to actively contribute to the protection of its significant historical and cultural heritage, as well as its returning to Lithuania. Within a short time, archives of chief of Lithuanian diplomacy Stasys Lozoraitis and former Director of the Economic Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jonas Norkaitis came back to Lithuania. The archive of inter-war Lithuanian diplomat Antanas Liutkus also has found its way back to our country,” Minister A.Ažubalis said during the event.

Aiming to strengthen the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in preserving Lithuania’s historical and cultural heritage, the Ministry signed two new cooperation agreements with Lithuanian Institute of History and the National Museum of Lithuania. The agreements were signed during the ceremony on 30 April by Minister A.Ažubalis, Director of Lithuanian Institute of History Rimantas Miknys and Director of the National Museum of Lithuania Birutė Kulnytė.

Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed a cooperation agreement with the Lithuanian Central State Archive in the autumn of 2009.

The death mask of J.Baltrušaitis and his books will be exhibited at the library named after J.Baltrušaitis at the Art Museum. The library is furnished with authentic furniture that belonged to J.Baltrušaitis.