Chicago Museum Says Investigators Have No Evidence Art Was Looted

The Art Institute of Chicago has rebuffed an try by New York investigators to grab an Egon Schiele drawing in its assortment, asserting in a strongly-worded 132-page court docket submitting that the investigators have produced no proof that the art work was looted by the Nazis as they declare.

The drawing, “Russian War Prisoner,” was bought by the Art Institute in 1966. It is considered one of a lot of works by Schiele that ended up within the arms of museums and collectors and have been sought by the heirs of the collector Fritz Grünbaum, a Jewish cabaret entertainer from Vienna who was murdered in a Nazi focus camp in 1941.

In a court docket submitting in February, the Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace accused the museum of ignoring proof of an elaborate fraud undertaken to hide that the art work had been stolen by the Nazis on the eve of World War II.

But the museum in its submitting on Tuesday argued that the drawing had legitimately handed from Grünbaum to his sister-in-law, who had bought it to a Swiss vendor after the conflict in 1956.

“There is not any proof in any respect — none — that the Work was ever bodily seized by the Nazis,” the museum mentioned in its court docket papers.

Megan Michienzi, govt director of public affairs on the Art Institute, mentioned in a separate assertion: “Our response offers particular particulars of the intensive proof, documentation, and analysis that particularly refutes the allegations made by the Manhattan District Attorney. The proof clearly demonstrates this work was by no means looted and was legally acquired, and we’ll proceed to advocate for our lawful possession of this work.”

The institute is the lone holdout amongst eight museums and collectors who acquired comparable turnover warrants in current months and returned their very own Schiele works to the Grünbaum heirs.

In an announcement, the workplace of the chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit within the Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace, Matthew Bogdanos, mentioned, “We will reply in court docket.”

At the middle of the dispute is the query of what occurred to the drawing when it was deposited by Grünbaum’s household at a storage facility in Vienna in 1938. Investigators have maintained that this was tantamount to surrendering it to the Nazis, who they are saying managed the warehouse. But the museum argued that whereas the storage firm had been “affiliated” with the Nazi regime, it “additionally supplied lawful storage and transferring companies to Jewish households” together with Grünbaum’s sister-in-law, Mathilde Lukacs.

Another disagreement facilities on the credibility of the account given by the Swiss vendor, Eberhard Kornfeld, who mentioned he purchased the Schiele works from the sister-in-law after she had inherited them from Grünbaum. He later bought lots of the works, together with “Russian War Prisoner.”

The New York investigators have taken purpose at Kornfeld’s account, placing ahead detailed proof in their very own filings that they mentioned present the provenance paperwork Kornfeld produced contained solid signatures or alterations made after he got here into possession of the Schieles.

But the Art Institute mentioned there was each purpose to imagine his account that said he had acquired the work from Lukacs and that the passing of the drawing into his arms had been a great religion transaction.

In two federal court docket circumstances associated to the Grünbaum claims, justices have dominated that the heirs got here ahead too late to put declare to the work. One of the federal court docket opinions additionally described Kornfeld’s account as credible.

But a New York Supreme Court ruling from 2018 discovered that Grünbaum had by no means bought or surrendered any of his works earlier than his demise, and that they have been certainly looted by the Nazis, making his heirs their true house owners.

Grünbaum signed an influence of legal professional in 1938, whereas in a Nazi focus camp, that gave his spouse management of his property, in keeping with officers. He was murdered in 1941 and his spouse was killed a yr later.

In the New York state court docket case, the judge rejected the concept that Grünbaum had voluntarily transferred the artworks throughout his lifetime to any inheritor, together with his sister-in-law, and that due to this fact any future sale of artwork to Kornfeld would have been invalid. “A signature at gunpoint can not result in a sound conveyance,” he wrote.

The museum argued towards this interpretation, asserting, amongst different issues, that the artwork was marital property and that Grünbaum spouse’s possession curiosity was not the results of the ability of legal professional, whether or not it was coerced or not.

Those who’ve already returned Grünbaum works embrace the Museum of Modern Art and the Morgan Library & Museum, each in New York; the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California; Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress and a longtime advocate of Holocaust restitution; the property of Serge Sabarsky, a well known artwork collector; the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh; and the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College.

Schiele, an Austrian Expressionist, was born in Austria in 1890 and died there on the age of 28. Known for the depth of his strokes and advantageous sketching, Schiele was declared a degenerate artist by the Nazis.