Artworks by Egon Schiele Seized by New York Investigators from U.S. Museums

On Wednesday, New York investigators confiscated three artworks from three museums outside of the state. They claim that these artworks were stolen from a Jewish art collector who was killed during the Holocaust and should rightfully be returned to the heirs of the Nazi victim.

The Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, and the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio have all been issued warrants and are facing charges of possessing stolen property. The works in question were created by Egon Schiele, an Austrian Expressionist artist from the early 1900s.

According to prosecutors, the artworks should rightfully belong to the three living heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, a well-known Jewish art collector and cabaret artist who was killed in the Dachau concentration camp in Germany in 1941.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment on the seizures, stating that they are part of an ongoing investigation into around twelve Schiele works that were allegedly looted by the Nazis and passed through New York at some point. These charges are bringing a group of Holocaust art recovery cases, which were previously being contested in civil court, into the criminal court system.

Mark Vlasic, a former United Nations war crimes prosecutor and current adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University, commented on the situation, saying, “Whether you are a plaintiff, prosecutor or defense counsel, attorneys are always looking for new precedents. This field of law is shifting so this move will no doubt make some parties quite nervous about how cases are resolved.”

The three artworks seized are: “Russian War Prisoner” (1916), a watercolor and pencil on paper piece valued at $1.25 million, taken from the Art Institute; “Portrait of a Man” (1917), a pencil on paper drawing valued at $1 million, confiscated from the Carnegie Museum of Art; and “Girl With Black Hair” (1911), a watercolor and pencil on paper work valued at $1.5 million, seized from Oberlin. The artworks will be transported to New York at a later date.

The Art Institute stated that they have confidence in the legality of their acquisition and possession of the artwork and are currently involved in civil litigation in federal court to defend their ownership. The Carnegie Museum expressed their commitment to acting ethically and legally and assured their cooperation with the authorities. The Oberlin museum did not provide an immediate comment.

Prior to these actions, the heirs of Grünbaum had filed civil claims against not only the three museums involved in this case, but also the Museum of Modern Art and the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City, as well as the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California, and several individuals. These plaintiffs were seeking the return of other Schiele artworks held by these museums.

Overall, the plaintiffs aim to recover approximately twelve Schiele artworks that were once owned by Fritz Grünbaum and are now in the United States. The plaintiffs include Timothy Reif, a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade; David Fraenkel, a co-trustee of Grünbaum’s estate; and Milos Vavra. One of their key arguments is that Grünbaum, who was openly critical of German aggression in the 1930s, was coerced by the Nazis into signing an unlawful power of attorney while at Dachau in 1938. They claim that he never willingly relinquished ownership of his collection, which was unlawfully dispersed after the war.

In 2018, the plaintiffs scored a favorable judgment regarding the Nazi “power of attorney” in the case of Reif v. Nagy in New York County Supreme Court, where they successfully reclaimed two Schiele artworks, “Woman in a Black Pinafore” and “Woman Hiding Her Face.” Judge Charles V. Ramos ruled that “a signature at gunpoint cannot lead to a valid conveyance” of personal property.