The Manhattan District Attorney's office has issued orders for the confiscation of three artworks by the renowned Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele. These actions stem from suspicions that these artworks were unlawfully taken from a Jewish collector who perished in the Holocaust and rightfully belong to his descendants.
According to The New York Times, the three contested pieces, which have been temporarily secured and are scheduled for future transfer to New York, include the following: an early watercolor and pencil composition titled "Girl with Black Hair" (1911), appraised at $1.5 million, currently housed in the collection of the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio; a watercolor and pencil artwork on paper from 1916 named "Russian War Prisoner," valued at $1.25 million, located in the holdings of the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC); and a pencil sketch found within the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, known as "Portrait of a Man" (1917), appraised at $1 million.
The artworks in question are currently the subject of claims made by the descendants of Fritz Grünbaum, a Jewish cabaret performer and art enthusiast who openly voiced his criticism of German persecution during the 1930s. By 1938, he found himself detained in the Dachau concentration camp, where his heirs allege that he was coerced into signing an unlawful power-of-attorney document. Tragically, Grünbaum lost his life at Dachau three years later, and his extensive art collection, including 81 works by Schiele, was subsequently sold and dispersed. His descendants are now seeking the recovery of approximately a dozen Schiele pieces currently located in the United States.
Regarding "Russian War Prisoner," an AIC spokesperson has stated that it is currently the subject of a civil litigation case in federal court, where this dispute is undergoing proper legal proceedings. They affirm their confidence in the lawful acquisition and rightful possession of this artwork.
A representative from the Carnegie Museums, which oversees the Carnegie Museum of Art and three other cultural institutions in Pittsburgh, has stated the organization's unwavering commitment to upholding its mission of preserving art and science resources in accordance with ethical, legal, and professional standards. They express their full willingness to cooperate with inquiries from relevant authorities.
A representative from Oberlin College informed The Art Newspaper, stating, "We hold the belief that Oberlin College acquired Egon Schiele's 'Girl with Black Hair' in 1958 through legal means and that we possess it in full accordance with the law. We are actively cooperating with the ongoing criminal investigation conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney."
In 2018, the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum—namely, Timothy Reif, David Fraenkel, and Milos Vavra—achieved the successful recovery of two Schiele watercolors. These artworks had been purchased by London dealer Richard Nagy in 2013 but were subsequently seized when he presented them at an art fair in New York in 2015. This particular case marked one of the earliest instances of relying on the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act, which became effective in 2016. The HEAR Act extended the timeframe for making claims on Nazi-looted artworks to six years after their initial discovery. Subsequently, the heirs sold these recovered artworks at Christie's in November 2022, fetching just over $3 million, including associated fees.
Selena Mattei
