Nagroda im. Prof. Aleksandra Gieysztora (Aleksander Gieysztor Award) is issued annually to institutions or individuals in recognition of their achievements in the area of protection of the Polish cultural heritage, in particular for museum and restoration initiatives as well as collecting items of value for Polish cultural heritage. Gieysztor Award is commonly considered the most prestigious token of recognition in the field of cultural heritage and tradition.

Objectives:
This award was designed to promote and support those who undertake extraordinary, often as much as heroic actions to protect Polish cultural heritage both in Poland and abroad. First Gieysztor Award of PLN 50,000 was granted in 2000, on the first anniversary of the patron's death.

Details:
The winner of the tenth, jubilee Gieysztor Award is Prof. Jan K. Ostrowski, awarded for work on documenting the monuments of sacred art on the territory of Ukraine formerly belonging to the Republic of Poland. The research project initiated and conducted by the winner is aimed at cataloguing all monuments of sacred art in the area in question, including those destroyed in WWII. In years 1993-2008 16 volumes of " Materiały do dziejów sztuki sakralnej (Materials for the History of Sacred Art)" were published Prof. Ostrowski's supervision, including 436 catalogue descriptions authored by 30 scholars. Total volume of materials published so far has reached 6,235 pages of print and 8,579 illustrations. Gieysztor Award celebrations were held on 18 February 2009 in the Grand Hall of the Royal Castle in Warsaw.