Nazi-Looted Art Seized From Carnegie

The drawing seized is "Portrait of a Man," a 1917 work by Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele. It was part of an extensive 450-piece art collection belonging to Fritz Grünbaum, a celebrated Austrian Jewish cabaret artist, writer, and outspoken critic of the Nazi regime. Grünbaum's entire collection, which included over 80 works by Schiele, was systematically inventoried and confiscated by the Nazis after he was arrested in 1938 while trying to flee to Czechoslovakia. He was forced to sign a power of attorney over to his wife, Elisabeth, who was then coerced into surrendering their collection to Nazi officials. Fritz Grünbaum was murdered at the Dachau concentration camp in 1941. His wife, Elisabeth, was killed at the Maly Trostinec extermination camp in Belarus the following year. For decades, the whereabouts of their extensive art collection remained largely unknown. The seizure from the Carnegie Museum is part of a broader, ongoing effort by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to recover and return pieces from the Grünbaum collection. Other prominent institutions, including New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Morgan Library, have also surrendered Schiele drawings that were found to be from the looted collection. These restitution efforts are guided by the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art. These non-binding principles encourage identifying art confiscated by the Nazis, opening archives for research, and achieving "just and fair" solutions for the heirs of the original owners. The case against the Carnegie Museum of Art, which had held the drawing since 1960, was part of a criminal investigation. The museum agreed to renounce its claim to the artwork, valued at approximately $1 million, leading to its return to Fritz Grünbaum's heirs.