New York investigators seized three artworks from out-of-state museums on Wednesday, alleging that they were stolen from a Jewish art collector who perished during the Holocaust. These artworks, by Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele, are claimed to rightfully belong to the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum. Grünbaum, a notable Jewish art collector and cabaret artist, was killed at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany in 1941.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office issued warrants to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, and the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio. The warrants state that there is reasonable cause to believe that the artworks are stolen property.
These seizures are part of an ongoing investigation into approximately a dozen Schiele works that were looted by the Nazis and trafficked through New York. The warrants move the cases from civil court to criminal court, marking a significant development in Holocaust art recovery.
Legal experts see these seizures as potential precedents in the field of law. Mark Vlasic, an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University and former UN war crimes prosecutor, believes that this move will make parties involved in similar cases nervous about how they will be resolved.
The three Schiele artworks seized are “Russian War Prisoner” (1916), worth $1.25 million and taken from the Art Institute; “Portrait of a Man” (1917), valued at $1 million and seized from the Carnegie Museum of Art; and “Girl With Black Hair” (1911), worth $1.5 million and taken from Oberlin College. The artworks will be transported to New York at a later date.
The Art Institute claims that it legally acquired and possesses the seized artwork, with ongoing civil litigation in federal court to defend their ownership. The Carnegie Museum states its commitment to acting ethically and legally, fully cooperating with the investigation. The Oberlin museum has yet to respond to inquiries.
Prior to these seizures, the Grünbaum heirs had filed civil claims against the Art Institute, the Carnegie Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Morgan Library and Museum, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and several individuals. They sought the return of other Schiele works held by these institutions.
The plaintiffs, including Timothy Reif, a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade, David Fraenkel, a co-trustee of Grünbaum’s estate, and Milos Vavra, are attempting to recover about a dozen Schiele works owned by Mr. Grünbaum and now residing in the United States.
The plaintiffs argue that Grünbaum, a vocal critic of German aggression, was coerced into signing an unlawful power of attorney while at Dachau in 1938. They contend that he never relinquished rightful ownership of his collection, which was illegally dispersed after the war.
In 2018, the plaintiffs secured a favorable judgment regarding the Nazi “power of attorney” in the case of Reif v. Nagy. Judge Charles V. Ramos ruled that a signature obtained at gunpoint cannot validate the transfer of personal property.
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