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With their decision of November 18, 2010, the Commission[1] appointed by the Austrian Federal Minister for Education, Arts and Culture, Dr. Claudia Schmied, under the chairmanship of the former Minister Dr. Nikolaus Michalek concluded that, with regard to the works of art currently held by the Leopold Museum Private Foundation and which were owned by Fritz Grünbaum until 1939, an offense as defined in Section 1 Subsection 1 of the Austrian Art Restitution Law would also not have been committed if these had been federal state property.

This decision was based on the Fritz Grünbaum Dossier compiled by Dr. Sonja Niederacher, dated June 30, 2010.She was jointly commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture and the Leopold Museum Private Foundation.

Through the omission of evidence and poor representation of the evidence put forward, this Dossier led the Commission to the erroneous conclusion that divestment of the collection as defined in Section 1 of the Annulment Act cannot be established.

This document serves as a rebuttal of the errors and omissions made in the compilation of the said Dossier – and presupposes knowledge of the Dossier to avoid repetition.

Read more: Rebuttal of Dossier Gruenbaum

Attachments Dossier:

A – Letter from ITS [international Tracing Service] Bad Arolsen, dated December 20, 2007

B – VAEV Akten Lilly und Fritz Grünbaum

C – Confirmation from the Austrian State Archives (ÖSTA) on February 26, 2008, that no records from the foreignexchange office have survived

D – Amendment of the Foreign Exchange Control Law from December 1, 1936

E -Ruling by the general Settlement Fund regarding Leon Fischer (english)

F – Ruling by the General Settlement Fund regarding Milos Vavra (english)

G – Extract from Austrian Social Insurance Authority for Business (SVA der gewerblichen   Wirtschaft) files, letter from Sigmund Lukacs dated 1959, in which he requested to be admitted to the SVA old people’s home.

H – Der Aufbau: Article on the death of Fritz Grünbaum, dated August 17, 1945 (english translation attached)

I – Probate file for Mathilde Lukacs, 2 A 847 BG Döbling

J – Expert report examining questioned documents of November 7, 2005

K – Bakalar vs. Fischer and Vavra – ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (english)

L – INTERNATIONALnews article, dated September 7, 2010, on the ruling by the Court of Appeals in New York, (english)

M – Summary of facts sent by Bratschi Emch & Partner to Mr. Thomas Buomberger on behalf of Galerie Kornfeld, dated April 16, 1998