On the Eve of Criminal Trial in U.S., Rudolph Leopold, Collector of Artworks Stolen from Jews, Dies in Vienna

Egon Schiele’s Dead City

Art collector Rudolph Leopold died today in Vienna, Austria.
In 1998, D.A. Robert Morgenthau seized two stolen artworks at the Museum of Modern Art that Leopold had loaned to the MoMA:  Egon Schiele’s Dead City and Schiele’s Portrait of Wally.
Leopold was scheduled to stand criminal trial this summer before the Hon. Loretta A. Preska in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York after Judge Preska determined that Portrait of Wally was stolen.
But MoMA returned the stolen Dead City to the Leopold Museum in Austria.  The Austrian Provenance Commission’s head Dr. Christoph Bazil, has repeatedly promised to investigate Dead City‘s provenance and those of other Schiele’s stolen from Fritz Grunbaum that are in the Leopold and Albertina Museums in Vienna, but after 11 years, no report has issued.

Austria purchased Leopold’s collection and made Leopold director of the Leopold Museum for life.  It remains to be seen whether Austria will carry through on its promises to investigate and return the stolen works in Leopold’s collection.

Article 26 of the 1955 Austrian State Treaty requires Austria to return all property stolen from Nazi persecutees.  Yet Austria has not only failed to return the property, but repeatedly set up enabling legislation designed to frustrate claims and then let the legislation lapse.

Das Verfahren David Bakalar vs. Vavra und Fischer (GERMAN)

von Herbert Gruber

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Bakalar vs Fischer und Vavra (german only)

Die Provenienz des verfahrensrelevanten Kunstwerks wurde wie folgt dargelegt:

1.    Jane Kallir:  Catalogue Raisonné 1998

Nr. 1974

Seated Woman with Bent Left Leg (Torso), Sitzende mit angezogenem linken Bein (Torso) Gouache and black crayon. Signed and dated, lower center, (35.1 x 25.5 cm) [sight].

Provenienz:

Provenance: Gutekunst & Klipstein, Bern; Galerie St.Etienne, New York; Norman Granz; Galerie St. Etienne, New York; David Bakalar

Exhibitions:

Bern, 1956, no. 51. ill.; New York, 1957, no. 28, ill.; Boston, 1960, no. 63, ill.

Literature:

Kenyon Review, 1964, facing p. 616

2.    Gutekunst und Klipstein

Lager- und Ausstellungskatalog Nr. 57,

Ausstellung Egon Schiele

8. September bis 6. Oktober 1956

Nr. 51

Sitzende mit angezogenem linkem Bein. Schwarze Kreide u. Tempera. 35,1:25,2 cm. Sehr schöne farbige Zeichnung, Auf glattem Maschinenpapier. Voll signiert und « I917» datiert.

3.   Sotheby´s in London

Am 8.2.2005 wurde bei Sotheby´s in London das  Kunstwerk um GBP 400.000,00 versteigert. Die Provenienz wurde wie folgt dargelegt:

Fritz Grünbaum, Vienna (until 1941)

Elisabeth Grünbaum-Herzl, Vienna (widow of the above; until 1942; thence by descent)

Mathilde Lukcas – Herzl (sister of the above)

Gutekunst & Klipstein, Bern (on consignment from the above by 1956)

Galerie St. Etienne, New York

Norman Granz, New York[1]

Galerie St. Etienne, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Am 10.2.2005 kontaktierte  der Anwalt der Erben nach Fritz Grünbaum, Dr. Gabriel Lansky Sotheby´s London und bezog sich auf eine Information der IKG Wien – Frau Erika Jakubovits – wonach das gegenständliche Werk der Sammlung von Fritz Grünbaum entstammt. Er forderte Sotheby´s auf das Kunstwerk einzufrieren bis zur Klärung der Eigentumsverhältnisse.

Der Käufer des Bildes wurde von Sotheby´s über diese Forderung informiert daraufhin trat er vom Kauf zurück.

Es gab Gespräche mit Repräsentanten von Sotheby´s und es waren weitere Termine vereinbart, als am  21.3.2005 der Besitzer des nunmehr nicht verkauften Bildes, Herr David Bakalar[2], Klage gegen die beiden Erben von Fritz Grünbaum am  United States District Court Southern District of New York zur Zahl 05 Civ. 3037 (WHP) einbrachte.

Die Klage lautete auf Feststellung seiner Eigentümerschaft und Schadenersatz in der Höhe von USD 650.000,–.

Da einer der Erben in New York wohnt, war die Klageerhebung in New York möglich.

Nachdem die Anwälte 7500 Dokumente ausgetauscht hatten, stellte das Gericht am 18.September 2008 die Eigentumsrechte von Herrn David Bakalar am gegenständlichen Bild fest.Die Klage auf Schadenersatz war von Bakalars Anwälten zurückgezogen worden.

Der Einzelrichter Hon. William H. Pauley III erachtete Schweizer Recht für seine Entscheidung maßgeblich, obwohldas Bild dem in Österreich lebenden und in Deutschland  ermordeten Fritz Grünbaum gehörte. Es war in Wien 1938 letztmalig nachweisbar, bevor es 1956 in der Schweiz an Otto Kallir veräußert wurde.

Der Einzelrichter Hon. William H. Pauley III erachtete Schweizer Recht für seine Entscheidung maßgeblich, obwohl

  1. das Bild dem in Österreich lebenden und in Deutschland  ermordeten Fritz Grünbaum gehörte. Es war in Wien 1938 letztmalig nachweisbar, bevor es 1956 in der Schweiz an Otto Kallir veräußert wurde.
  2. das Bild nach 1956 an in den USA durch Otto Kallir zweifach gehandelt und an Herrn David Bakalar verkauft wurde.
  3. Laut Aussage des Schweizer Galeristen Eberhard W. Kornfeld (Gutekunst & Klipstein) kauft er das Bild am 24.4.1956 von Mathilde Lukacs (damals Brüssel) und verkaufte es am 18. September 1956 an Otto Kallir.  Somit befand sich das Bild  knapp 5 Monate in der Schweiz.

Wesentlicher Grund zur Rüge der erstgerichtlichen Entscheidung war der Konflikt der Rechtssysteme von

  • Österreich
  • New York und der
  • Schweiz

sowie die Entscheidung des Gerichtes, ausschließlich Schweizer Recht zu Anwendung zu bringen.

Begründet wurde diese Entscheidung mit dem Umstand, dass der Verkauf des Bildes an den Otto Kallir in der Schweiz stattfand.

Korrekt wäre aber die Berücksichtigung

  • des Österreichischen Rechts für die erbrechtliche Situation nach Fritz Grünbaum
  • des Schweizer Rechts für den Ankauf des Bildes
  • des Rechts des Staates New York[3] für den Ankauf des Bildes durch Otto Kallir und dessen zweimalige Weiterveräußerung an Norman Granz und an David Bakalar.

Zum Stand des zweitinstanzlichen Verfahrens:

Stewart E. Eizenstat[4] und die IKG Wien traten dem zweitinstanzlichen Verfahren als Amicus Curiae[5] auf Seiten der Erben des Fritz Grünbaum bei.

Am 11.03.2009 korrigierte das Appelationsgericht eine Entscheidung der Erstinstanz, wonach eine Rechtsmeinung  der Wiener Anwältin der Grünbaum Erben, Dr. Kathrin Höfer, doch verfahrensrelevant zuzulassen ist.

Am 9.10.2009 fand eine mündliche Tagsatzung statt, in welcher vor allem der Konflikt der verschiedenen Gesetze und deren Konsequenzen diskutiert wurden. Stimmung und Inhalt  der Tagsatzung lassen sich aus nachfolgender Äußerung eines der drei Richter  ersehen:

JUSTICE KORMAN:

…….Perhaps that would be so if, in fact, there was a claim against a Swiss citizen. In other words, I’m not going to be prepared to quarrel if, if, if there was a claim against Kornfeld and  the action, you know, damages of replevin was brought against him, but  right now, no Swiss citizen, no Swiss business is at all implicated and what you have is, under my premise, stolen property being introduced into New York.


Aktuell kann keine Aussage darüber getroffen werden, wann  eine Entscheidung ergehen wird. Die zweite Instanz hat zur zeitlichen Abfolge ihrer Tätigkeit keinerlei Vorgaben.

Zusammenfassung:

Ein Verfahren wie dieses kann nur im Bundesstaat New York geführt werden, der  Verfahrensstand resultiert aus einer gescheiterten bzw. zurückgezogenen Klage auf Schadenersatz und der weiterhin aufrechten Gegenklagen der Erben, entsprechend dem Grundsatz in der US Verfahrensführung „Wer nicht klagt hat schon verloren“.

Das Appellationsgericht hat die Möglichkeit das Verfahren an die Erstinstanz zurück zu verweisen, dies meist mit verfahrensprägenden Verbesserungsaufträgen, oder es kann selbst eine Entscheidung fällen.

[1] Norman Granz (* 6. August 1918 in Los Angeles; † 22. November 2001 in Genf) war ein US-amerikanischer Jazz-Impresario und -produzent.

[2] David Bakalar,  Geboren 1931, Industrieller, Künstler und Kunstsammler, früherer Eigentümer der Firma Transition, der ehemaligen Nummer 2 am Weltmarkt der Transistorenhersteller, dies nach Texas Instruments, Transition hatte zur Hochblüte 10.000 Mitarbeiter. Im Jahre 1980 wurde Transition verkauft. Mit 62 startete David Bakalar eine Karriere als Bildhauer, mit 75 produzierte er seinen ersten Film.

[3] Das Recht des Staates New York kennt  eine Besonderheit,  nämlich dass ein Dieb in der Kette der Besitzer die Kette aller Besitzer bricht und ein gutgläubiger Erwerb nicht mehr erlangt werden kann.

Jedenfalls Mathilde Lukacs hat das Eigentum am Bild niemals rechtmäßig erworben.

[4] US Chefverhandler während der Administration Clinton  in Washington, welche als eines der Resultate das Allgemeine Entschädigungsfondsgesetz hatten

[5] Der Amicus ist v.a. jemand, der wesentliche fachliche Aspekte des Rechtsstreits und möglicher Entscheidungen hervorhebt. Er kann vertiefte Informationen und Sachkenntnis dem entscheidenden Gericht zur Verfügung stellen. Indes braucht er nicht völlig unabhängig zu sein, maßgeblich ist, nicht Partei zu sein. Amicus ist sogar häufig jemand, dessen Interessen indirekt durch den Rechtsstreit und die Entscheidung betroffen sein könnten. Es ist auch statthaft, eine Interessenseite oder einen Teilaspekt zuzuspitzen und pointiert vorzutragen. Gerade im Widerstreit und in der Gewichtung der Argumente erweist er dem Gericht einen „Freundschaftsdienst“. Im angelsächsischen Rechtssystem tritt der Amicus Curiae als eine Art parteiischer Sachverständiger auf, wie z. B. in den USA die Bürgerrechtsorganisation ACLU.

Watch the lecture by Raymond Dowd at Boston College Law School! Nazi Art Looting – Stolen Art in US Museums and How It Got There

Girl With Black Hair –  Stolen From Fritz Grunbaum, Now At Oberlin College

Here is a link to a lecture at the Boston College School of Law on April 22, 2010.  The URL is http://echo360.bc.edu:8080/ess/echo/presentation/20714145-29f6-4eb8-b72e-aadd6e794ad1.

Assoc. Dean Filippa Anzalone and her terrific Art Law students gave Raymond Dowd  a great welcome and asked lots of tough questions.  Dean Anzalone wrotea lovely letter and kindly gave permission to reprint:

Dear Ray:

Thank you again for your wonderful presentation for the Art Law Seminar on April 22nd. The students and other attendees were literally on the edge of their seats as they listened to your lawyerly and thorough discussion. Your excellent lecture, coupled with your slides made the presentation on Bakalar v. Vavra and Egon Schiele’s Dead City: Stolen art from Europe (1933-1945) in American museums and how it got there one of the most memorable classes of the semester. In fact, we discussed your presentation at the following week’s class and it was difficult to turn the discussion back to the topic scheduled for that week!

The thoroughness with which you presented the diabolically methodical process that the Third Reich used to despoil Jews of their property kept the class riveted during your lecture. The horror of the Nazi art looting came to life for the audience as you presented the evidentiary issues and the legal problems associated with restitution litigation for holocaust victims and families.

Since your presentation, many of the attendees have contacted me and commented on how astonished they were after your lecture. It is chilling to realize how methodical and relentless the Third Reich was in their pillaging operations. The cold, non-violent theft of Jewish property, including land, art and household objects, and even life insurance policies , by the Nazis is harrowing to say the least. Many of the attendees have told me that they appreciated understanding the issues of the Nazi thefts from your very carefully articulated legal perspective.

Your program was a real success; superseded only by your generosity of time and energy. We thank you for the printed copies of your slides, and your great kindness in talking with students and answering questions. We want you to know how very much your work was appreciated by me, my class, and the Boston College Law community. Thank you so much, Ray. May your good work continue and prosper.

Peace,

Filippa Marullo Anzalone
Professor of Law
Associate Dean for Library & Technology Services

Traffickers in Stolen Schieles: U.S. Museum Directors Warned Not To Act As Receivers of Stolen Goods

Egon Schiele Self-Portrait – Stolen from Fritz Grunbaum when he was deported to Dachau, now at the Morgan Library (Bequest of Fred Ebb)

The Morgan Library claims that the Berne gallery Gutekunst & Klipstein purchased this artwork directly from the estate of Egon Schiele.  Source: From Berlin to Broadway:  The Ebb Bequest of Modern German and Austrian Drawings (2007).

Gutekunst & Klipstein (now owned by Eberhard Kornfeld) claims that the work belonged to Fritz Grunbaum and that it bought the work in 1956 through Grunbaum’s sister in law.

Why would the Morgan Library tell a different story?

The late Francis Henry Taylor, former Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, warned U.S. museums not to act as receivers of stolen goods in 1943…

We know that the Nazis have carried off virtually all of the movable works of art in private possession.

***
The methods by which these properties are acquired have an ingenious quality of wickedness bordering on the naïve. The Nazis resort to the strictest legal fictions to justify their operations. …The laws regarding ownership of property by Jews have been invoked at every turn…. They were easy victims.

***

… their personal possessions — particularly works of art — were sold at public auction where German officials directly, or indirectly through local Quislings, bought in the objects with the worthless paper currency … . Then in turn the money realized by the original owner was taxed 100 percent and passed directly to the Nazi treasury.

***
Not since the time of Napoleon Bonaparte has there been the wholesale looting and destruction of art property that is going on today in the occupied countries. The Nazis have either confiscated or acquired by fictitious purchase the most important masterpieces of both public and private collections.

***

…after a fugitive existence [the artworks] will inevitably find their way to the free markets of neutral countries. In Buenos Aires and Madrid, in Stockholm, Berne and Lisbon, in Istanbul and Cairo we will see come out of hiding in the years immediately following the war objects of great intrinsic worth, held for the most part under fictitious names, and representing the real assets of the Nazi officials who are lucky enough to escape. These works will be offered primarily in the Western Hemisphere. How can we prevent this from happening and becoming ourselves party to the looting of Europe?

***

Private individuals might continue to operate in a “black market” of antiquities in which no questions would be asked, but public institutions disposing of trust funds could not very well connive in the liquidation of the artistic patrimony of Europe and act as public receivers of stolen goods.

Taylor, Francis Henry, Europe’s Looted Art: Can It Be Recovered? New York Times, September 19, 1943

Why is it that only today’s American museum directors seem to believe that Jews voluntarily sold artworks under the Nazi reign of terror?   And that they have a fiduciary duty to conceal stolen property?

Francis Henry Taylor knew that people in Berne would be selling artworks using fake names and he warned the art market.  In 1943.

Crossposted, see copyrightlitigation.blogspot.com

Watch and Listen! Powerpoint and Audio of Schiele’s Dead City: Nazi Art Looting at Sotheby’s Institute/New York State Bar Association


Egon Schiele’s Dead City – Stolen from Fritz Grunbaum

You can WATCH and LISTEN to my Powerpoint presentation with audio is now available here from the presentation I gave at Sotheby’s Institute on March 24, 2010 in a program sponsored by the New York State Bar Association’s Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section, chaired by Prof. Judith Prowda.

More material on artworks stolen from Fritz Grunbaum while he was in the Dachau Concentration Camp can be found at  http://artstolenfromfritzgrunbaum.wordpress.com/.

Egon Schiele’s Girl With Black Hair – Experts Agree Stolen From Fritz Grunbaum
Falsified Provenance Published by Oberlin College’s Allen Memorial Art Museum
Watch and listen to my Sotheby’s Institute presentation and learn about why Oberlin College’s provenance of Girl With Black Hair, found here, is false.
A summary of the evidence that Oberlin College has concealed below:
Below:  the cover of the 1956 Gutekunst & Klipstein (aka Galerie Kornfeld) – Eberhard Kornfeld testified that all of the artworks in this catalog belonged to Fritz Grunbaum. Dead City was the only artwork pictured that listed Fritz Grunbaum as the prior owner.
Oberlin has never put Fritz Grunbaum’s ownership of Girl With Black Hair in the provenance even though evidence of experts concluding that Fritz Grunbaum owned Girl With Black Hair was reported by Steven Litt of The Plain Dealer
Prewar catalogs show that Fritz Grunbaum owned Girl With Black Hair – Oberlin refuses to list these catalogs in its provenance of Girl With Black Hair
G. Girl With Black Hair, according to Eberhard Kornfeld, spent 147 days in Switzerland before being sold to Otto Kallir on September 18, 1956.
Otto Kallir was Fritz Grunbaum’s art dealer in Vienna.  Kallir had catalogued Dead City as being in Fritz Grunbaum’s collection in 1930 when he wrote a catalogue raisonne of Schiele’s oils.   As Otto Kallir’s grand-daughter, Jane Kallir, testified at trial:  Fritz Grunbaum owned Girl With Black Hair.

So why does Oberlin‘s President Marvin Krislov refuse to admit Fritz Grunbaum’s ownership?

Digg this

by Ray Dowd at 7:32 PM

Crossposted, see also

http://copyrightlitigation.blogspot.com/2010/04/watch-and-listen-powerpoint-and-audio.html

Lecture at Cincinnati Museum Center Insight Lecture Series by Raymond Dowd

Cincinnati Museum Center Insights Lecture Series

Raymond J. Dowd
Partner, Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller LLP
New York, New York

Mr. Dowd will speak about the battles to recover art stolen from Jewish Holocaust
victims, the undisclosed role of the Swiss in laundering looted art for the Nazis,
and the implications for U.S. museums holding artworks of European origin.

Thursday, February 11, 2010
6 p.m.

Insights Lecture
Murder, Mystery and The Dead City

[wpvideo dLAI8jgE]

Austria and Fritz Grunbaum’s Stolen Schieles at the Albertina Museum

In 1955, Austria signed a treaty with the United States promising to give back all of the property it stole from Jews during the period of Nazi “occupation” of Austria.   Ever since, Austria has treated this obligation largely as a joke, thumbing its nose at Jews who attempted to get their property back.  Only in the 1990’s through a combination of class action lawsuits and the actions of the Clinton Administration spearheaded by Amb. Stuart Eizenstat, did Austria instead agree to pay pittances to Jewish persecutees in lieu of giving them their property back.   The sad tale is well told in Eizenstat’s book Imperfect Justice.

But the class action settlements did not cover stolen artworks in Austria.  In 1998, in reaction to D.A. Morgenthau’s seizure of Egon Schiele’s Portrait of Wally and Dead City (Dead City belonged to Fritz Grunbaum), Austria passed an Art Restitution Law that permitted claims to be made against artworks in Austria’s federal museum collections.  On April 13, 1999, the heirs of Fritz Grunbaum made claims to the following works by Egon Schiele that were stolen from Grunbaum while he was in the Dachau Concentration Camp:

Egon Schiele, Female Nude Seated on Red Drape, Back View
Sitzender weiblicher Rückenakt mit rotem Rock

Jane Kallir: Egon Schiele, The Complete Works 1998, New York №:1504
Gouache, watercolor, and pencil. Signed and dated, lower right. (48.2 x 31.8 cm).
Gutekunst & Klipstein, Nov. 24, 1955, lot 107 1

Exhibitions: London, 1964, no. 67, ill.; Hamburg, 1981, no. 214, ill.
Inventorylist Albertina: 39.931

Jane Kallier: Egon Schiele, The Complete Works 1998, New York №:1797: Heinrich Rieger; Gutekunst & Klipstein, Bern; Galerie St. Etienne, New York; Rudolf Leopold;

Provenance as per Catalog: “Egon Schiele” Würthle Gallery, Vienna 1925:
“Mutter und Kind”, sign Egon Schiele 1915 Sammlung Fritz Grünbaum
Austria never responded to the claims of Fritz Grunbaum’s heirs.  From 2000 through 2009, Austria claimed that it was “investigating” the status of the works.  In 2006, Mag. Eva Blimlinger was called in to oversee the investigation together with Mag. Annaliese Schallmeiner.

Blimlinger is a respected Austrian historian and oversaw the Austrian Historian Commission’s report found at http://www.provenienzforschung.gv.at/ The Blimlinger and Schallmeiner Report, which was supposed to have issued in the fall of 2009, never has seen the light of day, apparently the victim of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture.   Why was that report killed and what did it say?

In the summer of 2009, at the Prague Conference on Holocaust Era Assets, Minister Claudia Schmid promised Congressman Wexler that she would investigate the status of the Grunbaum works at the Albertina.  I spoke to Dr. Christophe Bazil and Dr. Thomas Baier, who reassured me that they would investigate the issue and be in contact.   I wrote to them and never got any response.

In February, a client alerted me to a forum to take place in New York on Austrian Restitution.  The program is here.    I was rather shocked that the very Austrian officials who had promised to look into the Grunbaum affair and who did not have the time to answer my communications were to be speaking in New York City.

By failing to return property belonging to Jews, Austria has breached its obligations under the Austrian State Treaty of 1955.  This treaty was a condition of Austria’s existence, like our Constitution.  The Allies – Russians, French, British and Americans – pulled out of Austria on the promise that all property would be returned to Jews.   Instead, Austrians continue to live in homes stolen from Jews, operate businesses stolen from Jews, and to buy, sell and enjoy art stolen from Jews.

Since the Allies left Austria, Austria has enacted successively a system of inadequate and insulting postwar laws that failed to restore property to Jews.   To understand Austria’s obligations clearly (the treaty is written in plain English), we look to the actual writing. Article 26 of the 1955 Austrian State Treaty states as follows:

PROPERTY, RIGHTS AND INTERESTS OF MINORITY GROUPS IN AUSTRIA

1. In so far as such action has not already been taken, Austria undertakes that, in all cases where property, legal rights or interests in Austria have since 13th March, 1938, been subject of forced transfer or measures of sequestration, confiscation or control on account of the racial origin or religion of the owner, the said property shall be returned and the said legal rights and interests shall be restored together with their accessories. Where return or restoration is impossible, compensation shall be granted for losses incurred by reason of such measures to the same extent as is, or may be, given to Austrian nationals generally in respect of war damage.

The full text of the Austria is found here, courtesy Wikipedia.  You will see that there are no “if’s” ands or “buts” in the Treaty.  Its language is unconditional and does not depend on enabling legislation.  Indeed, any enabling legislation that fell short of the absolute terms of the Treaty would be unconstitutional in Austria.

It is to be hoped that the U.S. State Department will assist the heirs of Fritz Grunbaum in obtaining a copy of the Blimlinger/Schallmeiner Report and in facilitating conversations through the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, consistent with the Washington Principles on Holocaust-Era Assets.   It is to be hoped that President Obama’s Ambassador to Austria, Amb. William Eacho will take a personal interest in the plight of Jews dispossessed in the Holocaust.

Crossposted, see copyrightlitigation.blogspot.com

Listen to the Speech by Raymond Downd at Yad Vashem

The International Institute for Holocaust Research-Yad Vashem

cordially invites you to attend the lecture


Egon Schiele’s Dead City

Current Issues In Nazi Art Looting and Recovery

Raymond Dowd, Esq.

Partner – Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller LLP New York

Wednesday, 24 February 2010

10:00-12:00

Lecture Hall, Room 223, Administration and Research Building

Yad Vashem, Mount of Remembrance

In 1998, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau seized Egon Schiele’s Dead City and Portrait of Wally at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, creating a scandal that changed the legal landscape of Europe and the United States for victims of Nazi persecution and their survivors.  Ray Dowd represents the heirs of Fritz Grunbaum, a Jewish cabaret performer murdered in the Dachau Concentration Camp.  Fritz’s wife Lily died in the Minsk Death Camp.  Grunbaum’s art collection surfaced in Switzerland in 1956 under disputed circumstances, and in the first Holocaust-era art recovery trial in U.S. history, Bakalar v. Vavra, the District Court found that passing the artwork through Switzerland gave it clean title.  The case is on appeal. Many of Fritz’s artworks are in the Leopold Museum and the Albertina Museum in Austria. In over ten years, Austria has not even bothered to respond to the heirs’ claim.


Listen to the speech

Lecture at Yad Vashem by Raymond Dowd, 24.2.10

You can view the Powerpoint presentation that illustrates the audio here