Pictured: “Seated Nude Woman, front view”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., and Special Agent in Charge Ivan J. Arvelo of Homeland Security Investigations, New York, today announced the return of an eleventh artwork to the family of Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian-Jewish cabaret performer whose art collection was stolen by the Nazi regime. The drawing, Seated Nude Woman, front view by the Austrian artist Egon Schiele, was seized by the Office’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit in 2024.
The piece is being returned from the estate of Gustav “Gus” Papanek. The Papanek’s were Austrian Jews who fled the Nazis in 1938 and purchased the artwork unaware it had been stolen from Mr. Grünbaum. The Papanek family fully cooperated with the Office’s investigation. The drawing was returned at a ceremony today with D.A. Bragg, Acting Deputy Special Agent in Charge O’Malley and members of both the Grünbaum and Papanek families.
In September 2023, the Office returned seven Schiele artworks from the Museum of Modern Art; The Ronald Lauder Collection; The Morgan Library; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art; and the Vally Sabarsky Trust in Manhattan. An additional artwork was surrendered by the collector Michael Lesh directly to the family in October 2023. In January 2024, two more artworks were returned, one from the Allen Museum of Art at Oberlin College and the other from the Carnegie Museum of Art.
The Schiele drawing Russian War Prisoner remains seized in place at the Art Institute of Chicago.
“The history behind Nazi-looted art is horrific and tragic, and the consequences are still impacting victims and their families to this day. It is inspiring to see both the Grünbaum and Papanek families join together to reflect on their shared history and preserve the legacy of Fritz Grünbaum. I want to commend the Reif family for harnessing Fritz Grünbaum’s legacy to create a better world by using the funds from their auctions to support underprivileged artists. Their commitment to giving back to the community is incredibly moving and should serve as an example for others to follow. I also want to thank the Papanek family for their willingness to fully cooperate throughout this entire investigation, and to the attorneys and analysts in our Antiquities Trafficking Unit for their tireless commitment to returning these artworks,” said District Attorney Bragg.
“The recovery of this important artwork — stolen from a prominent Jewish critic of Adolf Hitler —sends a message to the world that crime does not pay and that the law enforcement community in New York has not forgotten the dark lessons of World War II. District Attorney Bragg and his team led by Assistant District Attorney Bogdanos have not forgotten. Agent-In-Charge Arvelo of the Department of homeland Security and his exceptional team have not forgotten. The family of Fritz Grünbaum salutes each and all of you as shining examples of the best ideals of law enforcement,” said Timothy Reif, relative of Fritz Grünbaum.
“We believe that returning the drawing is the right thing to do. We are fortunate that our family, including Helene, Ernst, Gus and Hanna Papanek were able to enjoy viewing this work of art on a daily basis. The experience of the two families serves as yet another reminder of the evil and brutality of the Nazi regime,” said the Papanek family.
“We must never forget the unimaginable depravity inflicted upon the Grünbaums and all who were killed during the Holocaust, nor can we ever reverse the inhumanities of the past. We hope that we can, at the very least, provide the Reif family with the freedom to dictate for themselves how they choose to honor and recognize their slain loved ones,” said HSI New York Special Agent in Charge Ivan J. Arvelo. “I commend HSI New York’s Cultural Property, Art and Antiquities group, in coordination with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, for their commitment to securing whatever justice possible for the Grünbaums and their progeny.”
Seated Nude Woman, front view is believed to depict Schiele’s wife, Edith, and was drawn in 1918.
Fritz Grünbaum possessed hundreds of artworks, including more than 80 works by Egon Schiele. He was captured by the Nazis in 1938 after their annexation of Austria and was forced to execute a power of attorney while he was imprisoned in Dachau in favor of his wife, Elisabeth Grünbaum, who was later compelled to hand over his entire art collection to Nazi officials. Both Grünbaums died in concentration camps during the war.
Grünbaum’s collection was inventoried by art historian and Nazi-party member Franz Kieslinger and then impounded in the Nazi-controlled warehouse Schenker & Co A.G. in September 1938. All works by Schiele had been declared degenerate and many of the confiscated works were auctioned or sold abroad to finance the Nazi war machine in a program overseen by Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. After Grünbaum’s Schiele collection was taken by the Nazi’s in 1938, it did not surface again for more than a decade.
In 1956, the artworks suddenly reappeared in Bern, Switzerland, and were sold by Eberhard Kornfeld, the owner of G&K Auction House, who died in April 2023. During the war, Hitler’s personal art curator, Hildebrand Gurlitt, was authorized to sell off degenerate artwork that had been seized by the Nazi government as part of Goebbels’s program. Then, in the decades after the war, Kornfeld established a close business relationship with Hildebrand Gurlitt’s son Cornelius, from whom Kornfeld received hundreds of Nazi-looted artworks stolen from Holocaust victims.
Kornfeld then sold most of Grünbaum’s Schieles to Otto Kallir, the owner of the NYC-based Galerie St. Etienne, with no provenance or ownership history. Kallir knew the artworks had belonged to Fritz Grünbaum before his death, however, because Kallir had seen the drawings in the Grünbaums’ Vienna apartment in 1928 when Kallir borrowed them for an exhibition at his Neue Galerie in Vienna. After purchasing the drawings from Kornfeld, Kallir transported them into Manhattan and then sold them to private collectors, individuals, and institutions.
Two of the individuals who purchased drawings from Kallir were Ernst and Helene Papanek, the parents of Gus Papanek. The Papanek family fled Nazi persecution in 1938 and emigrated to the United States in 1940. In 1961, they purchased Seated Nude Woman from Otto Kallir. Gus Papanek received the drawing as a gift from his parents in 1969, where it remained in his estate until his death in 2022. When the Office approached the family in 2024 and with evidence of the drawing’s theft, Papanek’s heirs fully cooperated with our investigation and consented to the return of the drawing.
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, Chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit and Senior Trial Counsel conducted the investigation along with Assistant District Attorney Edward Smith, Investigative Analyst Hilary Chassé, and Special Agent Megan Buckley. The District Attorney’s Office would like to thank the Papanek Family for their admirable assistance and cooperation with our investigation.
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