Artwork believed stolen during Holocaust seized from Pittsburgh museum

By Kalea Gunderson

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    PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (WTAE) — A piece at the Carnegie Museum of Art has been seized because officials believe it may have been stolen during the Holocaust.

It’s one of three artworks that investigators believe was taken from a Jewish art collector, Fritz Grünbaum. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office issued a warrant on behalf of Grünbaum’s family.

The drawing, titled “Portrait of a Man,” allegedly once precious property of Grünbaum, is valued at $1 million. It’s the piece seized from the Carnegie Museum of Art.

Grünbaum was killed in the Holocaust in 1941.

The two other works are being seized from the Art Institute of Chicago and Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio.

The Manhattan district attorney alleges the three pieces by Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele are stolen property.

“For families and descendants of survivors to be able to pursue these precious items, and also attempt to restore some kind of family legacy. In this particular instance, this victim was a prominent Jewish art collector, and so this is a part of the legacy. This is a part of his family,” said Laura Cherner, director of community relations for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

Cherner stressed the importance of cases like this one.

“We know that there are potentially hundreds of thousands of pieces of artwork that were taken from Jewish families, our collectors, artists during the Holocaust. Those pieces, they could be in the hands of private collectors, in the hands of museums. We really don’t know,” Cherner said.

Carnegie Museums shared the following statement:

“Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh is deeply committed to our mission of preserving the resources of art and science by acting in accordance with ethical, legal, and professional requirements and norms. We will, of course, cooperate fully with inquiries from the relevant authorities.”

“We are very grateful that Carnegie Museum is fully cooperating in the investigation. I think that this is a way to pursue some small piece of justice for these families. So much was taken, in addition to lives during the Holocaust,” Cherner said.

The three pieces of art will allegedly remain at the museums until they can be taken to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

According to the Associated Press, Grünbaum’s heirs previously filed civil claims against several defendants, including the Carnegie Museum of Art, seeking the return of stolen art, and in 2018, two pieces were returned under the Holocaust Expropriated Recovery Act.

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