Listen to the article
New York authorities announced that they have successfully repatriated seven artworks by Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele, valued cumulatively at over $9 million, to the descendants of Fritz Grunbaum. Grunbaum, an Austrian Jewish cabaret performer and staunch critic of the Nazi regime, met his tragic fate at the Dachau concentration camp in 1941.
The artworks, previously part of Grunbaum’s extensive collection which comprised over 80 pieces by Schiele alone, were unjustly appropriated by the Nazis in the 1930s. Schiele’s oeuvre, deemed “degenerate” by Nazi ideology, was often auctioned or sold internationally to raise funds for the party. The ill-gotten pieces were held in esteemed institutions including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Ronald Lauder Collection, the Morgan Library, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Vally Sabarsky Trust in Manhattan. These establishments voluntarily surrendered the artworks upon presentation of their illicit origins.
The repatriation is a landmark triumph for the Grunbaum heirs, who have been ardently advocating for the restitution of their stolen inheritance for several years. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, reflecting on the successful recovery, stated, “Despite the immense tragedies inflicted by the Nazis, it is never too late to retrieve what was unlawfully taken and pay homage to the victims.”
Timothy Reif, both a judge and a relative of Grunbaum, expressed his gratitude to the authorities, praising their unparalleled dedication to justice in recovering artifacts misappropriated more than eight decades ago. Under the aegis of District Attorney Bragg, more than 950 unlawfully acquired artworks, with an aggregate value of $165 million, have been repatriated to countries like Cambodia, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey and Italy.
Interestingly, a noteworthy legal precedent was set in 2018 when a U.S. court ruled in favor of the Grunbaum heirs over two separate Schiele artworks. A London-based art dealer claimed a legitimate transfer of 54 Schiele drawings, citing a sale by Grunbaum’s sister-in-law post his demise. However, the court unequivocally stated that a coerced signature, analogous to one “at gunpoint,” lacks the validity to effectuate a bona fide conveyance.
This ruling was fortified by the Holocaust Expropriated Recovery Act, instituted by the US Congress in 2016. The legislation ameliorates the statute of limitations associated with recuperating artworks illicitly taken during the WWII era. Concurrently, France has recently implemented a law facilitating the restitution of artworks pilfered by Nazi Germany now housed in French museums, back to their rightful Jewish proprietors.
The pursuit of justice continues, with the Grunbaum heirs currently seeking other misappropriated artworks. In the latest update, artworks were retrieved from institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio.
With AFP
