Seven Schiele works from the Grünbaum Collection restituted

US authorities have returned seven works of art by Egon Schiele that were stolen during the Nazi era to the heirs of the Jewish art collector Fritz Grünbaum. “It is never too late to make up for some of what we have lost, to honor the victims and to reflect on how their families continue to be affected today,” New York Attorney General Alvin Bragg said in handing over the paintings on Wednesday.

Grünbaum was taken into custody by the Nazis in 1938. His wife later had to hand over the art collection to the National Socialists. The works are said to have belonged to the collection of the Jewish cabaret artist and collector Grünbaum, who was murdered in the Dachau concentration camp in 1941.

The seven paintings were sold, among others, to a New York gallery in 1956 by the dealer Eberhard Kornfeld. Kornfeld worked closely with the controversial art collector Cornelius Gurlitt and received hundreds of paintings from him, Nazi looted art from Holocaust victims. The public prosecutor’s office estimated the value of the paintings handed over at around 9.5 million dollars (8.87 million euros).

Albertina and Leopold sued

This means that the problem of the twelve pictures from the Grünbaum Collection owned by the Albertina and the Leopold Collection has once again become the focus of restitution policy. Here too, Grünbaum’s heirs have sued the two museums. The Leopold Collection declined to comment yesterday.