Giada Amendolara '25
In one of the longest-running Holocaust restitution cases, Austrian artist Egon Schiele's paintings were finally returned to their rightful owners in New York.
7 pieces of Nazi-looted art from World War II were recently returned to the heirs of the Holocaust victims that created them. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., and Special Agent in Charge at Homeland Security Investigations Ivan J. Arvelo recently announced that the family of Austrian-Jewish cabaret performer Fritz Grünbaum would be getting the 7 artworks back.
After furnishing the holding institutions and estates with proof that the drawings were taken by the Nazis, all 7 were seized and returned and are valued to be worth around $7 million. The artwork, created by Egon Schiele, was confiscated from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); The Ronald Lauder Collection; The Morgan Library; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA); and the Valley Sabarsky Trust in Manhattan.
According to the New York Times, “Mr. Grünbaum, a celebrated Jewish cabaret performer and art patron known for his barbs against Nazism, was arrested in 1938 and sent to the Dachau death camp in Germany.” (www.nytimes.com/2023/09/20/arts/schiele-fritz-grunbaum-nazis.html.)
While imprisoned, Grünbaum was forced to execute a power of attorney to his wife, Elisabeth, who was later forced to hand over his art collection to Nazi officials. Schiele was considered a degenerate artist, and the prosecutors claimed that in 1938, the collection was inventoried, then impounded in a Nazi-controlled warehouse, and that the proceeds from the sale or auction of Schiele's artwork went to support the Nazi Party. After being sent to a death camp, Mr. Grünbaum was killed in 1941, and his wife died in 1942.
Adolf Hitler ordered the acquisition of other countries' cultural property during World War II - frequently by force - for the benefit of the state. The Nazis targeted public museums, private Jewish collections, and institutions thought to oppose the Nazi ideology.
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, Nazis looted approximately 600,000 works of art from Jews during World War II. Though the Holocaust’s atrocities occurred many decades ago, their legacy still reverberates in the lives of survivors and their families—many of whom are still not in possession of what was once theirs. The Louvre holds around 1,700 Nazi-looted works of art. (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/nazi-looted-paintings-new-york-museums-180980587/)
Following World War II, their whereabouts were unknown until the 1950s, when they were discovered again at the Swiss auction house Gutekunst & Klipstein. “We are returning these beautiful works, these drawings, to their rightful owners, to the family,” Mr. Bragg said as the works were handed back. “This incredible art collection was stolen by the Naziregime.” (https://manhattanda.org/d-a-bragg-seven-pieces-of-nazi-looted-art-returned-to-relatives-of-holocaust-victim/).
Bragg and others were commended for their efforts in keeping the artworks by Judge Timothy Reif, who is related to Fritz Grünbaum. According to the New York Post, Reif, a judge on the US Court of International Trade, said the return of the works “defeats Hitler’s plan to erase this brave Jewish man’s name from the book of history. By recovering these long-lost artworks, our law enforcement authorities have today achieved a measure of justice for the victims of murder and robbery.” (Kyle et al.)
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