Front page on April 25th, 2018:
Battle Continues as Heirs Seek to Auction Nazi-Looted Paintings
20180425_NYLJ_Battle ContinuesAuthor: Fritz Grünbaum
Das Urteil zur Rückgabe zweier Schielegemälde auf Deutsch
Pressespiegel: Schiele-Bilder müssen zurückgegeben werden
Ein Artikel von Hannes Stein für “WELT am Sonntag”
20180417_ Welt_Schiele-Bilder müssen zurückgegeben werdenBis heute hängen im Leopoldmuseum und in der Albertina mindestens zehn Schiele-Bilder, die aus Grünbaums Sammlung stammen. Der Staat Österreich weigert sich hartnäckig, sie herauszurücken – jetzt könnte es für ihn juristisch schwierig werden…
…Der österreichische Erbenvertreter Herbert Gruber gab unterdessen zu Protokoll: „Ich bin unendlich traurig, dass nunmehr 80 Jahre nach dem Anschluss die Republik Österreich noch immer von Raubkunst aus der Sammlung Fritz Grünbaum profitiert. Die Erben von Fritz Grünbaum beanspruchen die Aushändigung der geraubten Kunstwerke. Das Gedenkjahr der Republik muss Anlass für Reflexion, aber auch für Sühne sein. Der österreichische Staatsvertrag verpflichtet zur Rückgabe der geraubten Werke.“ Mehr gibt es dazu eigentlich nicht zu sagen.
Zwei Schiele-Gemälde werden an die Erben von Fritz Grünbaum ausgehändigt
New York, NY – Wien – In einer bahnbrechenden Entscheidung durch Richter Charles E. Ramos wurden die Werke Egon Schieles “Frau mit schwarzer Schürze“ und „Frau, das Gesicht verbergend“ den Erben des Holocaust-Opfers Fritz Grünbaum zugesprochen. Der Fall „ Reif vs. Nagy“ beschäftigt die New Yorker Gerichte seit November 2015, als der Anwalt Raymond Dowd die Rückgabe der Kunstwerke an Grünbaums Erben forderte, nachdem sie am Stand des Galeristen Richard Nagy auf der Kunstmesse „Salon Art + Design Show“ in der Park Avenue Armory in New York City entdeckt wurden.
“Dies ist ein wichtiger Sieg in dem wahrscheinlich wichtigsten Kunstfall des späten 20. Jahrhunderts”, sagte Rechtsanwalt Raymond Dowd, Partner bei Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller LLP. “Es ist ein Sieg für die Opfer des Holocaust, ihre Familien und all jene, die gekämpft und gestorben sind, um die Übel des Nationalsozialismus zu beseitigen.”
Fritz Grünbaum, gestorben am 14. Januar 1941 im KZ Dachau, war ein österreichischer Kabarettist, Operetten- und Schlagerautor, Regisseur, Schauspieler und Conférencier. Seine umfangreiche Kunstsammlung von insgesamt 450 Stücken, von denen 80 Schiele-Kunstwerke waren, wurde vollständig durch das Naziregime geraubt.
“Heute hat meine Familie einen Teil ihrer Geschichte zurückerobert, der vom Nazi-Regime gestohlen wurde. Wir sind überglücklich und dankbar, dass Richter Ramos uns geholfen hat, das Erbe von Fritz Grünbaum zu schützen, der außergewöhnlichen Mut und Talent gezeigt hat und die moralische und rechtliche Bedeutung der Rückgabe von NS-Raubkunst an seine rechtmäßigen Erben erkannte “, sagte Timothy Reif , Testamentsvollstrecker und Erbe Grünbaums. “Diese Gemälde helfen uns, uns an das Leben derer, die wir lieben, zu erinnern und zu ehren und uns zu helfen, die jüdische Kultur zu bewahren, die die Nazis so sehr zu zerstören versuchten.”
Grünbaums Kunstsammlung erregte 1998 internationale Schlagzeilen, als der New Yorker Bezirksstaatsanwalt Robert M. Morgenthau Egon Schieles „Tote Stadt III“ – bis heute im Besitz des Leopoldmuseums -beschlagnahmte. Die Beschlagnahmung und das nachfolgende Verfahren führte zu einer tiefen Auseinandersetzung darüber, wie Österreich und andere europäische Staaten Ansprüche auf Raubzüge von Holocaust-Opfern bearbeiten.
Bis heute weigert sich der österreichische Staat, den Anträgen auf Restitution der jedenfalls 10 Werke aus der Sammlung Grünbaum, unter anderem „Tote Stadt III“ (Leopoldmuseum) und „Sitzender weiblicher Rückenakt mit rotem Rock“ (Albertina), stattzugeben.
„Ich bin unendlich traurig, dass nunmehr 80 Jahre nach dem Anschluss die Republik Österreich noch immer von Raubkunst aus der Sammlung Fritz Grünbaum profitiert.“, sagt der österreichische Erbenvertreter Herbert Gruber, „Die Erben von Fritz Grünbaum beanspruchen die Aushändigung der geraubten Kunstwerke. Das Gedenkjahr der Republik muss Anlass für Reflexion, aber auch für Sühne sein. Der österreichische Staatsvertrag verpflichtet zur Rückgabe der geraubten Werke.”
Den Originaltext des Urteils sowie die amerikanische Presseaussendung finden Sie unter: https://www.collectiongruenbaum.com/2018/04/07/descendants-of-holocaust-victim-win-monumental-nazi-looted-art-case
Die deutsche Übersetzung des Urteils finden sie hier
Der österreichische Erbenvertreter Herbert Gruber steht für Interviews unter +43(1)513-40-84 zur Verfügung.
Rückfragen & Kontakt:
BÜRO FÜR GENEALOGIE
Herbert Gruber
Rauhensteingasse 10/12a
A-1015 Wien PF 293
Tel.: +43(1)5134084
Fax: +43(1)5134084-22
http://www.genealogie.co.at
Descendants of Holocaust victim win monumental Nazi-looted art case
Two Schiele paintings will be returned to the heirs of Fritz Grunbaum, a holocaust victim and broadway star of his time
NEW YORK, NY – Today, in a landmark decision by Justice Charles E. Ramos, the heirs of Holocaust victim Fritz Grunbaum were awarded title to two Nazi-looted artworks, Woman in a Black Pinafore and Woman Hiding her Face, by the artist Egon Schiele. The case, Reif vs. Nagy, has been winding its way through the courts since November 2015 when attorney Raymond Dowd requested the artworks be returned to Grunbaum’s heirs, including Timothy Reif, after they were discovered in Mr. Nagy’s booth at the Salon Art + Design Show at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City.
“This is an important victory in what is probably the most important art case of the late 20th century,” said Attorney Raymond Dowd, partner at Dunnington, Bartholow, & Miller LLP. “It is a victory for Holocaust victims, their families, and all those who fought and died to undo the evils of Nazism. This decision brought us a step closer to recovering all of the culture that was stolen during the largest mass-theft in history which, until now, has been overshadowed by history’s largest mass-murder.”
Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian-Jewish songwriter, director, actor, and master of ceremonies who openly mocked Hitler, performed musicals and plays for his fellow prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp until 1941, when he died penniless in captivity. His extensive collection, totaling 450 pieces, 80 of which were Schiele artworks, was looted in its entirety by Nazi agents in 1938. The two Schiele paintings in question have been housed in a fine art storage facility in Queens, NY since court proceedings began in 2015.
“Today, my family has regained a part of its history that was stolen by the Nazi Regime. We are overjoyed and thankful that Justice Ramos has helped us protect the legacy of Fritz Grunbaum, who was a performer of exceptional courage and talent, and realized the moral and legal importance of returning Nazi-looted art to its rightful heirs,” said Timothy Reif, executor and heir to the Grunbaum estate. “These paintings help us remember and honor the lives of those we love and help us preserve Jewish culture that the Nazi’s tried so hard to destroy.”
Despite defendant Richard Nagy’s best efforts to argue that the case fell outside of the statute of limitations that one can claim stolen art, and that the HEAR Act did not apply to this case, Judge Ramos adamantly disagreed. Justice Ramos explains in the decision, “Although defendants argue that the HEAR Act is inapplicable, this argument is absurd, as the act is intended to apply to cases precisely like this one, where Nazi-looted art is at issue. Since plaintiffs discovered the Artworks in November of 2015, their action is timely under the HEAR Act.”
Grunbaum’s art collection grabbed international headlines in 1998 when New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau seized Egon Schiele’s Dead City from New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The Morgenthau seizure made Grunbaum’s estate a cause celebre leading to changes in the way Austria and other European countries process claims involving art looted from Holocaust victims. Justice Ramos’ decision has ended a controversy that has raged since the 1998 Morgenthau seizure and provided justice for Holocaust victims and their heirs.
Full decision attached.
161799_2015_Timothy_Reif_et_al_v_Richard_Nagy_et_al_DECISION___ORDER_ON_288
Raymond Dowd “Who Should Profit from the Holocaust?
Jonathan Petropoulos Rebuttal Report
Jonathan Petropoulos research and scholarship from 2008 to the present reaffirms that Fritz Grünbaum lost his art collection, including the Artworks, due to Nazispoliation. Historical records show that both Fritz Grünbaum’s property and the property of his wife and widow, Elisabeth Grünbaum (“Elisabeth”), were under the control of “Aryan” trustee Ludwig Rochlitzer who was appointed by the Nazis to liquidate their property in January 1939 pursuant to the 3 December 1938 Aryan Trustee Act.
In his striking report he summerizes and discusses the direct evidence showing Nazi control of Fritz Grünbaum’s art collection in 1939 through his death in 1941.
Jonathan Petropoulos Rebuttal ReportThe evidence that the Nazis had custody of Fritz Grünbaum (imprisoned in the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps) and his artworks (stored and “blocked” in a Schenker & Co. warehouse, an entity utilized by the Nazis to despoil property) is overwhelming, reliable, and uncontroverted.
Press Clipping: Panel Allows Stolen Artwork Claims to Move Forward
Jason Grant
April 19, 2017
“Collateral estoppel requires the issue to be indentical to that determined in the prior proceeding,” the panel said. “[That has not]…been shown here where the purchaser, the pieces, and the time over which the pieces were held differ significantly.”
The lawsuite is part of a long-running fight to reclaim art once owned by Austrian Jew Fritz Grunbaum, who amassed a rare 449-piece art collection that was confiscated by Nazis in 1938, his heirs say. Grunbaum died at the Dachau concetration camp.
Read the full article here : http://m.newyorklawjournal.com/#/article/1202784114427/11/Panel
Press Clipping: Legal battle over Schiele works owned by Jewish entertainer who died in Dachau
His heirs’ attempts to recover them will be framed by President Obama’s Holocaust Act
| 6 April 2017
A dispute in New York over two watercolours by Egon Schiele will revisit the tragic life of their owner in the 1930s, Fritz Grünbaum, a popular Jewish entertainer in Vienna who died a Nazi prisoner in Dachau.
Some also see the case as an early assessment of the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act, which regularised a federal statute of limitations of six years, beginning with the discovery of an object, during which claims can be made for the recovery of Nazi loot in the US. The statute affirms a US interest in the restitution of art stolen during the Nazi era.
Continue reading the article here at : http://theartnewspaper.com/news/new-legal-battle-over-schiele-watercolours/
Brief Amicus Curiae
Brief Amicus Curiae on Behalf of The American Jewish Committee, Omer Bartov, Michael Bazyler, Haim Beliak, Michael Berenbaum, Donald Burris, Judy Chicago, Richard Falk, Hector Feliciano, Eugene Fisher, Irving Greenberg, Peter Hayes, Douglas and Marjorie Kinsey, Douglas Kmiec, Marcia Sachs Littell, Hubert Locke, Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Bruce Pauley, John Pawlikowski, Carol Rittner, John Roth, Randol Schoenberg, William Shulman, Stephen Smith, Alan Steinweis, Melvyn Weiss, Donald Woodman, and Jonathan Zatlin, in Support of Plaintiffs-Respondents.
Full Amicus BriefOn December 16, 2016, President Obama signed into law the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016 (the “HEAR Act”), which passed both the House and Senate unanimously. Amici have particular interests implicated by the HEAR Act, which are set forth in Appendix A. None of the Amici has any financial or economic interest in the outcome of this appeal.
Amici underscore one specific way in which Nazis victimized Jews: robbery on a grand scale. The grand larceny should not be overlooked merely because mass murder was the foulest crime perpetrated by the Nazi conspirators……In Part I of the brief, we suggest that the HEAR Act does exactly what the Washington Principles and the Terezín Declaration failed to accomplish: provide binding legal language enabling fair and just resolution of conflicts over Recovery of Holocaust Expropriated Art. In Part II, we explain how the HEAR Act intersects with various technical defenses in this case focused on two pieces of art that were indisputably the property of Fritz Grunbaum.