CLAWED BACK

Artwork Believed to Be Stolen in Holocaust Seized From U.S. Museums

Three pieces were once owned by Fritz Grünbaum, a cabaret performer and songwriter who died at Dachau in 1941.

Three pieces of artwork suspected of being stolen from a Holocaust victim were seized from U.S. museums on Wednesday. The artwork was once owned by Fritz Grünbaum, an Jewish cabaret performer and songwriter whose extensive art collection was looted by the Nazis before they sent him to his death at Dachau in 1941. Grünbaum’s heirs have long attested that he never willingly gave up his collection and that any artwork he ceded in the Nazi era should be returned to his family. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, sided with them this week, saying there is reasonable cause to believe the trio of works in U.S. museums—all by Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele—were stolen. Bragg ordered authorities to seize the artwork, which was on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, and the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College. All three museums objected to the order, saying they obtained the works legally.