New York prosecutors this week returned two modernist drawings Nazis seized over 80 years in the past to relations of a Jewish cabaret performer killed at Dachau.
Fritz Grünbaum, a Viennese singer and comic who was outspoken in opposition to Hitler in his act, is believed to have owned not less than 450 artworks earlier than the Nazis annexed Austria. His relations have retrieved a couple of dozen.
In some instances when Nazis arrested Jews and despatched them to focus camps, the officers carted off the household’s belongings, together with priceless artworks. Nazi officers positioned stolen art work in galleries and their properties and stashed it in caves and salt mines. The Allied “Monuments Males” labored to retrieve many items within the aftermath of World Battle II. When artwork resurfaced throughout Europe, the unique homeowners of the work had been typically not disclosed throughout gross sales, which made it arduous for descendants of individuals killed within the Holocaust to get well their household’s stolen property.
Many households like Grünbaum’s have spent a long time monitoring down and attempting to show they personal valuables stolen by Nazis.
After years of looking out, relations lastly regained possession Friday of two Egon Schiele drawings Grünbaum owned. Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg introduced the items held by two American artwork museums had been returned to Grünbaum’s descendants. Prosecutors valued Schiele’s 1911 drawing, “Lady with Black Hair,” which was the property of Oberlin Faculty’s Allen Museum of Artwork in Ohio, at $1.5 million. The second piece, “Portrait of a Man” from 1917, belonged to the Carnegie Museum of Artwork in Pittsburgh and was valued at $1 million. Seven further works the New York DA retrieved this previous fall had been value $9.5 million.
Detailed information from Nazi officers and artwork sellers supply Grünbaum’s members of the family and prosecutors clues for monitoring down the long-ago-stolen items. They present that a whole bunch of work and drawings seized from Grünbaum’s spouse after he was despatched to Dachau are scattered in collections throughout the U.S. and Europe.
After years of looking out, every restoration issues.
“This can be a victory for justice, and the reminiscence of a courageous artist, artwork collector, and opponent of fascism,” a relative of the collector, U.S. Choose Timothy Reif, mentioned in a press release. “Because the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, we’re gratified that this man who fought for what was proper in his personal time continues to make the world fairer a long time after his tragic dying.”
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Grünbaum’s members of the family auctioned items they’ve recovered at Christie’s and used proceeds towards a belief that gives scholarships for highschool musicians from underrepresented communities, Raymond Dowd, an legal professional for Grünbaum’s household, instructed USA TODAY. The 2 Schiele items recovered Friday are set to be auctioned in Might.
The household has additionally energetic litigation to get well a dozen items that belonged to Grünbaum which can be in Austrian museums, Dowd mentioned.
They’ve clues about the place different items are, however Dowd mentioned, “There’s much more detective work that we have to interact in.”
Dowd mentioned the household is grateful for prosecutors like Bragg and Morgenthau who’re unwilling “to show a blind eye to this horrible crime.”
Seizure of artwork, homicide by Nazis
Grünbaum, who was born in 1880, collected a whole bunch of works throughout his a long time as a performer in Austria and Germany. He turned a vocal critic of the Nazis, performing what one site describes as “political cabaret” in Vienna.
“He insisted on staging items that brazenly mocked Hitler, the dearth of freedom underneath Nazism, and the impossibility of dissent in Austria,” in keeping with a historical past on Music and the Holocaust by ORT, a UK-based charity.
Upon strolling onto a darkish stage for his final public efficiency in March 1938, he instructed the group he noticed nothing.
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“I will need to have wandered into the Nationwide Socialist tradition,” he quipped, utilizing one other identify for the Nazis.
Austrian officers banned him from performing after that and days later, the Gestapo arrested him, in keeping with courtroom filings.
He was imprisoned at Dachau and carried out for different Jews imprisoned there. He remained on the camp till his dying on Jan. 14, 1941.
In July 1938, whereas he was at Dachau, Nazis pressured him to offer his spouse Elisabeth energy of legal professional, forcing her handy over his complete artwork assortment to the federal government. Jews weren’t allowed to personal property, and by 1939, a Jewish property declaration confirmed Nazis had taken all of his spouse’s property.
On October 5, 1942, Elisabeth was deported to the Maly Trostenets dying camp in Minsk the place she was killed.
Stolen artwork resurfaces in Switzerland, Manhattan
Elisabeth’s property declaration detailed Grünbaum’s possessions. Nonetheless, the majority of the art work the household had owned vanished from information after World Battle II. Allied officers warned that looted Nazi artwork was turning up in American and European galleries and museums.
Paperwork from 1930 detailed that Jewish Austrian artwork vendor Otto Kallir knew Grünbaum had owned Schiele items. After the battle, Kallir bought 20 works.
The items ended up at New York’s Galerie St. Etienne, a modernist gallery in Midtown that Kallir based. The works had been later offered to museums and collectors, in keeping with courtroom filings. Heirs would seek for these items for years.
It wasn’t till 1998 that the household obtained their first breakthrough. Robert Morgenthau, Manhattan’s DA on the time, seized Schiele’s “Useless Metropolis III” from New York’s Museum of Trendy Artwork, about 4 blocks from Kallir’s gallery.
It was the primary of the 20 works returned to Grünbaum’s heirs.
The heirs introduced lawsuits in opposition to a number of establishments to retrieve the opposite artwork Kallir bought after the battle. They had been stymied by questions in regards to the provenance of the artwork and paperwork that confirmed the works had been correctly acquired by different establishments as a result of Grünbaum’s sister-in-law had possession of the items and offered them off. Grünbaum’s household and artwork historians dispute this proof. In a 2018 case for 2 of Grünbaum’s Schiele items, a New York choose dominated Grünbaum could not have transferred artworks voluntarily. “A signature at gunpoint can not result in a legitimate conveyance,” he wrote.
In September 2023, the household had one other breakthrough when the Manhattan DA’s workplace and investigators from U.S. Homeland Safety seized seven items from galleries in California and New York collections. In October, an artwork collector surrendered one other piece on to the household.
Monuments Man purchases stolen artwork
On Friday, Bragg, the New York DA, introduced Oberlin’s Allen Museum had returned Schiele’s “Lady with Black Hair” to Grünbaum’s heirs. In 1958, Charles Parkhurst, who directed the Oberlin’s museum and was a part of the “Monuments Males” effort bought the piece, Andrea Simakis, a spokesperson for Oberlin Faculty, wrote in an e-mail. It was “inconceivable” he would have knowingly bought art work which may have been stolen, she added.
The faculty voluntarily returned the drawing, she mentioned. “We hope this may present some measure of closure to the household of Fritz Grünbaum.”
The Carnegie Museum of Artwork returned “Portrait of a Man” to the household. The Carnegie Institute accepted the drawing as a present in 1960, in keeping with expert art historians cited in courtroom information.
In a press release, officers from the museum mentioned the establishment had relied on a discovering confirmed and upheld in federal courtroom that the gathering the drawing got here from wasn’t stolen by Nazis. When the Manhattan DA took on the case, the Carnegie Museums determined to not contest the claims and gave the piece to prosecutors in October, in keeping with the assertion.
“If at any time we believed that the Egon Schiele drawing ‘Portrait of a Man’ had been stolen by the Nazis, Carnegie Museums would have returned it prior to now to these we believed to be its rightful homeowners,” the assertion mentioned.
Bragg’s workplace has now helped return 10 artworks to the household. In a press release, Bragg mentioned this accomplishment speaks to the “dogged advocacy” of Grünbaum’s relations.
“Allow us to use this second as a chance to honor and protect the extraordinary legacy of Mr. Grünbaum – a life that we should always always remember,” Bragg mentioned.
Grünbaum owned 81 Schiele items, an artwork historian said in courtroom paperwork. Different works that belonged to him are in dispute in courtroom.
Schiele’s 1916 piece, “Russian War Prisoner,” stays on the Artwork Institute of Chicago. Megan Michienzi, a spokesperson for the museum, maintained the work wasn’t looted however fairly legally obtained from Grünbaum’s sister-in-law. Michienzi cited a 2010 federal courtroom ruling on a separate piece of Schiele artwork Grünbaum had owned.
“If we had this work unlawfully, we’d return it, however that’s not the case right here,” she mentioned in a press release.
In November, a federal choose dismissed the Grünbaum household’s case in opposition to the Artwork Institute of Chicago as a result of the time to file a lawsuit underneath the 2016 Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act expired.
Bragg has additionally taken on the case in opposition to the Artwork Institute of Chicago. Douglas Cohen, a Manhattan DA spokesperson, mentioned oral arguments are set to start April 3.
