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This decision was hailed by the heirs of the Jewish collector from whom the two Schiele drawings had been stolen by the Nazis, as “a victory for justice and memory”.
France Télévisions – Culture Editorial
Published on 01/21/2024 11:33
Reading time: 2 min This photo, taken in Los Angeles (United States) on September 13, 2023, shows a person looking on a computer at several works by the Austrian artist Egon Schiele (1890-1918), including “Portrait of a man” (1917) and “Girl with black hair” (1911). (CHRIS DELMAS / AFP)
New York justice announced on Friday January 19 the restitution of two drawings by the Austrian artist Egon Schiele (1890-1918) which had been stolen by Nazi Germany and exhibited in museums in the United States. Black haired girl (1911), pencil drawing held by the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin University in Ohio and estimated at $1.5 million, and Portrait of a man (1917) which was at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, valued at $1 million, was returned to the heirs of Austrian Jewish art collector and cabaret performer Fritz Grünbaum, who was murdered by the Nazis.
“It is a victory for justice and the memory of a courageous artist, an art collector and an opponent of fascism“, welcomed Timothy Reif, a member of Grünbaum’s family, killed in Dachau in 1941, in a press release from the Manhattan prosecutor’s office.
Ten works by Schiele restored in a few months
On September 20, the New York State Prosecutor’s Office for the Manhattan district of prosecutor Alvin Bragg announced that the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), the Morgan Library in New York, the Museum of art of Santa Barbara (California), the Ronald Lauder collection and the Vally Sabarsky Fund in Manhattan had returned seven works by Schiele, a figure of Austrian expressionism. An eighth was returned directly to the Grünbaum family by collector Michael Lesh in October, recalls a press release from Alvin Bragg. Six drawings, including watercolors, were sold at auction in November at Christie’s in New York.
Prosecutor Bragg was delighted that his prosecution, which has been fighting for years against the theft and trafficking of works of art from around the world, was able to “in just a few months”return ten coins stolen by the Nazis” to Fritz Grünbaum in Austria in 1938 and then resold to finance part of the German war machine.
The heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian cabaret artist and great art collector, have been fighting in court for decades to regain possession of his works, especially drawings by Schiele. After failing several times in court in the United States, the heirs won their case in New York for the first two works rendered in 2018 after the adoption in 2016 of the “Hear” law by the American Congress.
2024-01-21 10:33:02
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