CNN —During a ceremony and press conference Wednesday in New York, seven drawings by the Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele were returned to the heirs of their former owner, Fritz Grünbaum, whose art collection was stolen by the Nazis during World War II.
His routines, which often openly derided Nazism and Hitler, were eventually banned, and Nazis arrested Grünbaum in 1938.
His wife, Elisabeth, was later forced to turn over her husband’s art collection — which Bragg said Wednesday included “hundreds of pieces” — to the Nazis.
Grünbaum’s collection included “I Love Antithesis,” a colorful watercolor painting of the artist, and “Girl Putting on Shoe,” which was previously held by MoMA.
Earlier this week, additional Schiele pieces were “seized” from three US museums amid other efforts to reunite Grünbaum’s collection, though they currently remain at the museums pending further investigation.
Persons:
Egon Schiele, Fritz Grünbaum, “, ”, Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr, Nazism, Hitler, Grünbaum, Elisabeth, Bragg, Timothy Reif, ” Bragg, Edith, Grünbaum’s, they’d, Ronald Lauder, Reif, ” Reif, Hitler’s
Organizations:
CNN, Manhattan District, Attorney, MoMA, Nazi, Holocaust Memorial Museum, Morgan Library, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Fischer Foundation, New York Times
Locations:
New York, Austrian, Jewish Austrian, Vienna, Dachau, Germany, Minsk, Belarus, Schiele, Swiss, California