20 years ago, Zdzis³aw Beksiñski was murdered in his apartment. He knew the murderer

The article was first published on February 21, 2020. We remind him on the 20th anniversary of the artist’s death.

Zdzisław Beksiński was one of the most outstanding and original Polish contemporary artists. If he lived, he would celebrate his 96th birthday soon – he was born on February 24, 1929 in Sanok. In 1977, when the city authorities decided to demolish his family home, He moved with his wife and son to Warsaw. They lived in a block of flats in Warsaw’s Służewo. Thus, in which Beksiński was murdered 28 years later.

17 wounds with a knife, they did not take the paintings

Zdzisław Beksiński took care of his safety. In 2005 he lived alone. His wife Zofia, with whom he was for 47 years, died on September 22, 1998 because of the aortic aneurysm, son Tomasz committed suicide soon after. A hard, anti -burglary door led to their family apartment on the third floor, and at the bell the painter installed a camera – He opened before, he always checked who was calling him. It didn’t help – he knew his murderer well. Beksiński murdered a 19-year-old from Wołomin. He, his father, mother and sisters worked for the painter. They cleaned in the apartment, carried out minor repairs, helped to frame images. Robert K. came to borrow money, and when he heard a refusal – he asked 17 wounds with a knife. Later, his defenders explained that he needed a loan to give a debt to blackmailers.

When he stabbed blindly, his 16-year-old cousin was waiting in the staircase. Then he entered the apartment and helped the mop wipe the blood from the floor. Together, they dismantled the corpse and took a glazed balcony. They closed all the door, blurred traces of their presence. They took two cameras and 100 CDs. Everything was about PLN 3,000. As if they had never returned to Wołomin, and Łukasz K. borrowed Robert clothes – his were steeped in blood. All paintings have been in place.

Zdzisław Beksiński’s corpse was discovered by his relatives. Late in the evening, the worried Krzysztof K. called them (as it turned out later, the father of the murderer), who worked for the painter for at least 10 years. He couldn’t reach his older gentleman and it worried him – he always perceived. In the evening they went to the apartment at Sonaty Street. The door was locked, so to go inside they had to knock a hole in the wall.

At first glance, everything looked normal, only after some time they went to the balcony. Beksiński was lying there in a pool of blood. They called the police, a Investigators worked at the crime scene of 15 hours. Robert K., his father and cousin were arrested after two days – he confessed to the murder. In 2006 he was convicted, his cousin Łukasz got five years suspended for help.

Untitled images, but always with music

On the day of the murder, Zdzisław Beksiński finished painting his own last picture.

However, he planned not from the very beginning that he would become a painter, although he had painted from a child from a child. He deliberately did not pass the Academy of Fine Artshe graduated from architecture at the Cracow University of Technology. After graduation, he returned to his hometown of Sanok, where from 1959 to 1967 he worked as an artist at the local bus factory.

Zdzisław Beksiński initially dealt with artistic photography and drawing, only later he became interested in painting and sculpture. In the late phase of creativity he was fascinated by computersso he also created compositions in graphic programs and using a photo -pitcher. He passionately documented the life of the family – he recorded films, took pictures. Apparently he was able to buy three new cameras in one year.

In the mid -1960s, he began to paint the first tips from Sanok, Tadeusz Turkowski, Beksiński also contacted Bronisław Nadam. His style definitely stood out from other creators – Beksiński He gave up the avant -garde then popular. His painting is described as visionary and fantastic. The first works referred to Eastern mysticism, they were very mysterious and symbolic, kept in a catastrophic and horror atmosphere – he called this stage of his “baroque” work. Later, he focused more on form and composition, he wanted to maintain harmony – this phase was his “Gothic”.

He carefully painted with oil paints on fiberboard, and when he worked, he always listened to the musicianand. After his death, a neighbor from the block recalled in an interview with: “When he painted, he played beautiful music. You could hear through the ajar window. We will miss him. The facilities have several thousand exhibits.

Some say that Fatum was pregnant over Beksiński

Zdzisław Beksiński was a father Tomasz Beksiński – An outstanding translator, a radio personality that was conducted by programs, including in the programs of the Second and III of Polish Radio, great He translated dialog lists for films, including About James Bonda. It was from his pen that the Polish translation of almost all film work and the television group of Monty Python came out.

Young Beksiński had several suicide attempts behind him. One of them happened in 1977 – then they moved to Warsaw. After her he came up with the idea to print and hang your own hourglasses. He wrote -“On September 22, Tomasz Beksiński died suddenly after 18 years of age. Mourning the corpse will take place on September 25, 1977 at 16.00. Mourning Holy Mass for the peace of the soul of the deceased will take place on September 25, 1977 11.00 in the parish church, which the family informs about. ” Friends and school colleagues began to come with condolences to Beksiński. Tomasz Beksiński later said: “I know, It was idiotic, I did like a cloud – Now I see it and I still feel hideous. “

In 1985 he tries again. He goes to the hospital, for a few days he is in a coma. However, doctors manage to wake him up. One of them recalls that the patient had a “pressure ulcer on his face, apparently he was lying on something hard for many hours.” He stayed for him for the rest of his life.

His parents bought him a flat in the same estate – They lived close to each other all their lives. Mama, Zofia Beksiñska, cleaned and cooked his dinner. When the son was to visit them, she opened the lock in the door, because “Tomeczek would come to dinner and he was nervous, how he had to turn the key in the castle.” Tomek described one of these visits in the book of Magdalena Grzebałkowska “Beksińscy. Double portrait” Family friend:

Suddenly (…) Tomek enters. He appears in the door, screams: ‘Heil Hitler!’, And goes out to eat in the kitchen. We are silent because we are shocked. Zosia says nothing either. Tomek in radio broadcasts was a completely different man. He spoke beautifully, calmly, he did not insult anyone. It did not agree with his everyday life at all. Father, and above all his mother, abused.

At Christmas 1999, his father found him dead. In Grzebałkowska’s book, he reported this moment: “I have hidden material evidence from the prosecutor’s officebecause he left a card with information that a letter to me is on a computer and a recording in a voice recorder. Fearful that the police will take everything and then listened to various random people (…), copied to the floppy disk and deleted a letter to me from the computer and put it in my voice recorder pocket and information card before the ambulance arrived. I think I did the right thingalthough both the police and the prosecutor could not understand why he did not leave the letter, and this aroused their greatest suspicions. “And he continued to talk about his son:

For the first time since Zosia’s death, I felt a kind of joy that she had died, not waiting for what would be unbearable for her. (…) I knew how it was hard for him, although he was an egoist and egocentric, but he was not chosen. I think it probably happened as it happened. His last words recorded on the tape talked about how much he was disappointed in the world in which he lived. (…) Approximately it ended: ” I know it is a world of fiction, but maybe I was a fiction during these 41 years. I go to the world of fiction, because only I was fine there. I am begging you for everything, don’t go to me. ‘

Do you need help?

If you experience difficulties and think about taking your life or want to help a person at risk of suicide, remember that you can use free assistance numbers: Support Center for Adults in a mental crisis: 800-70-2222; Trust phone for children and adolescents: 116 111; Emotional support phone for adults: 116 123. You will find more information on how to help yourself or others, and contacts for organizations helping people in crisis and their loved ones.

If there is a suicide in connection with suicide thoughts Life threatfor immediate crisis intervention, call the police to the number 112 or go to an ambulance ward to a local psychiatric hospital.