UNITED NATIONS.- Country authorities announced that two construction stolen by the Nazi regime, valued at 2.5 million dollars and which ended up on display in American museums, will be returned to relatives of Fritz Grunbaum, an Austrian Jewish cabaret artist who died in the Holocaust.
This new return follows the return last year of seven works of art stolen from Grunbaum in 1938, sold by the Nazis to finance their war machine.
The Allen Museum of Art at Oberlin College had the work Woman with black hairvalued at about 1.5 million dollars, while the Portrait of a man It remained in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art and is valued at approximately one million dollars.
Both drawings are by Egon Schiele, an Austrian expressionist artist.
Justice with works
“This is a victory for justice and for the memory of a brave artist, art collector and opponent of fascism,” said Timothy Reif, a judge and relative of Grunbaum, who died in the Dachau concentration camp.
“As Fritz Grunbaum’s heirs, we are grateful that this man – who fought for what was right in his own time – continues to make the world more just, decades after his tragic death,” they added.
In addition to the seven works recovered last year and the two pieces that will be returned now, another work was given to the family, without conditions, by a collector.
“The fact that we were able to return 10 pieces that were stolen by the Nazis speaks to the tenacious advocacy of the family members to ensure that these beautiful works of art could finally return home,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Grunbaum was critical of the Nazis and owned hundreds of works of art, including more than 80 made by Schiele, whose work was considered degenerate by the regime.
Arrested by the Nazis in 1938, Grunbaum was forced to cede his power of attorney to his spouse, who in turn was forced to hand over the family’s entire art collection and then be deported to another concentration camp in what is now Belarus. .
Source: AFP
