A New York choose has ordered the Art Institute of Chicago to return a 1916 Egon Schiele drawing to the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian Jewish artwork collector persecuted throughout the second world struggle.
Within the ruling, Decide Althea Drysdale sided with state authorities who argued the work was looted throughout the Holocaust. The drawing, acquired by the Artwork Institute in 1966, is amongst a number of Schiele works as soon as owned by Grünbaum which have surfaced in numerous personal and public collections.
Drysdale dominated the museum did not adequately scrutinize the drawing’s provenance, counting on now-discredited data from Swiss seller Eberhard Kornfeld, who claimed to have purchased the work from Grünbaum’s sister-in-law. Authorities overseeing the dispute offered proof that Kornfeld cast paperwork so as to promote the works discretely.
The Artwork Institute challenged the Manhattan district legal professional’s maneuvering, calling the matter a civil dispute and arguing the work has by no means in been confirmed to be stolen property. Drysdale dominated New York authorities had jurisdiction, citing that the drawing has handed by means of a New York gallery throughout a non-public sale, in the end concluding the work has been stolen for greater than eighty years.
The museum displayed the piece for years till it was seized in 2023. The authorized dispute ran for a shorter time than many comparable restitution instances that contain museums of the Artwork Institute’s measurement and status. The choice marks one other milestone for Grünbaum’s heirs, who’ve pursued different restitution claims associated to their household’s assortment for a few years.
The most recent ruling comes a yr after the museum had secured a brief authorized win over the drawing’s possession. In a decision filed in February 2024, New York Decide John G. Koeltl dismissed a earlier movement the heirs had filed, which requested the courtroom to rethink a declare from the autumn that halted their try and get the portray restituted. In that call, the judge sided with the museum, permitting it to proceed to carry the Schiele’s portray in its assortment.
“We’re disillusioned within the ruling,” a spokesperson for the Artwork Institute instructed ARTnews in an announcement. The museum will search to enchantment the choice, they stated.
