Egon Schiele’s Dead City III – Stolen from Fritz Grunbaum
In 1998, District Attorney Robert Morgenthau seized Egon Schiele’s Dead City III from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Here’s what Judge Edward Korman said about Fritz Grunbaum and the evidence that the Nazis looted his art collection in a concurring opinion he wrote while sitting by designation on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Bakalar v. Vavra, 619 F.3d 136 (September 2, 2010)(the bolding is mine): Read more
The heirs of Fritz Grunbaum persuaded a Manhattan judge Tuesday to block the sale and transport of two works by Egon Schiele that belong to Mr. Grunbaum’s collection. The works were featured by Richard Nagy of Richard Nagy, Ltd. at the Salon + Design fair held at the Park Avenue Armory, New York.
Tuesday, Justice Ramos of the New York Supreme Court entered a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) providing that Woman in a Black Pinafore and Woman Hiding Her Face, shall not be transferred or otherwise removed from New York by any person or entity.
A hearing is scheduled for December, 1st in Manhattan.
Die Bestände des Leopold Museums wurden vom Kunstsammler Rudolf Leopold und seiner Ehefrau Elisabeth Leopold gesammelt und sind seit 1994 Eigentum der Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung.
Fritz Grünbaum wurde in Dachau ermordet, seine Kunstsammlung geraubt. 15 Jahre forderten die Erben eine Restitution der Werke aus Albertina und Leopoldmuseum – ohne Reaktion.
Claims Conference/WJRO Calls for International Association of Provenance Researchers
Claims Conference President Julius Berman announced that a new report shows that 15 years after the first international agreement regarding restitution of Nazi-era looted art, most countries have made little progress toward returning stolen cultural items to their rightful owners. A survey of 50 countries by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) and the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) shows that two-thirds of the nations that have endorsed agreements regarding research, publicity and claims for Nazi-era looted art have done little or nothing to implement those pacts. Read more
Egon Schiele’s Seated Woman With Bent Left Leg (1917)
On October 31, the family of Fritz Grunbaum gathered at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial To The Holocaust to thank former District Attorney Robert Morgenthau for his efforts to recover Egon Schiele’s Dead City III, an artwork he seized on behalf of Grunbaum’s family at the MoMA in 1998.
Mr. Morgenthau, referring to the above drawing, read the following from a concurrence written by Judge Edward Korman when he sat by designation on a case called Bakalar v. Vavra at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals:
Grunbaum was arrested while attempting to flee from the Nazis. After his arrest, he never again had physical possession of any of his artwork, including the Drawing. The power of attorney, which he was forced to execute while in the Dachau concentration camp, divested him of his legal control over the Drawing. Such an involuntary divestiture of possession and legal control rendered any subsequent transfer void. Bakalar v. Vavra, 619 F.3d 136, 148 (2d. Cir. 2010)(concurrence)
Ein Artikel im Standard zur Versteigerung der beiden Schielebilder und die darauffolgende Diskussion in den Kommentaren zwischen Elisabeth Leopold, Olga Kronsteiner und Herbert Gruber
