My grandfather spent around a year in Russian occupied territory after the end of WW2 as a former Italian Military Internee. A good part of that time was spent painting for officer's clubs, with subjects ranging from country scenes to portraits of Lenin.
While my grandfather was not a renown artist, this made me wonder - as I suppose there must have been others, like him, painters, carpenters, smiths, etc. who left a material trace of their passage - if there was ever an attempt to collect those items or link them to the people who made them.
My question is inspired by WW2 events but I would appreciate also informations on other time periods, or areas.
There's some preserved POW art from WW II in the UK. A good example would be the chapel built by Italian prisoners at Scapa Flow in Scotland. The prisoners took a standard Nissen hut and decorated it with amazing tromp l'oeil paintings to become a Catholic chapel. There's some good pictures and a potted history of the building here, it's a legally protected building open to the public.
https://www.visitscotland.com/info/see-do/the-italian-chapel-p253741
Going back a bit further, French POWs from the Napoleonic wars liked to make sculptures from bones saved from their meals. Many British museums have examples. Ships were a favourite subject, as many of these guys were naval folk, but they also did ornaments, figures, boxes, games, and even political pieces (including guillotines!). Here's some examples at the Peterborough museum site of work from a Napoleonic POW camp near the city:
https://www.vivacity-peterborough.com/heritage/heritage-collections/norman-cross-collection/