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Jewish Museum of Berlin Presentation 2009.Pdf Murder, Mystery and Egon Schiele’s Dead City Swiss laundering of stolen Austrian art Judisches Museum, Berlin 18 May 2009 7:30 pm Raymond J. Dowd Partner – Dunnington Bartholow & Miller LLP New York NY Entartete Kunst “Degenerate Art” In 1937, the Nazis declared a large number of artworks as “degenerate” if “un-German” or Jewish. To mock “degenerate” artists, the Nazis presented “Entartete Kunst” a traveling art exhibit, in 1937. Degenerate art was stripped from museums, artists boycotted or exiled. Hitler visits the Entartete Kunst exhibit in 1937 2 1933-1945 – Jews Stripped of Artworks • 25% Reich Flight Tax • 25% Atonement Tax • 96% Confiscatory foreign exchange rate for Jews • Blocked bank accounts • Sham transactions • Wholesale confiscations of Jews • Tens of thousands of artworks left Germany and entered the U.S. directly and through Switzerland • Snapped up by U.S. museums and wealthy collectors 3 On Nazi-Looted Art: “This is such a gigantic issue,” Cleveland Museum of Art Director Robert P. Bergman said. ``We're talking about hundreds of thousands of objects. I believe that for the rest of my professional career, this issue will face the museums of the world.'‘ (AP/Akron Beacon Journal 3/1/1998). Bergman died at age 54 in 1999 after a two-week illness of a rare blood disorder (NY Times 5/7/99). 4 Scope of current Nazi-art problem • “the amount of research to be undertaken on the tens of thousands of works of art that, by definition, may have Nazi-era provenance problems is significant, requiring large allocations of staff time and money, allocations U.S. art museums have made and will make until the job is done.” - Testimony of AAMD President James Cuno to Congress July 27, 2006 5 Egon Schiele’s Portrait of Wally – 1998 Morgenthau Seizure from MOMA as stolen --- with Fritz Grunbaum’s Dead City 6 1999 Seizure Quashed, U.S. Attorney Seizes Portrait of Wally • Rita and Tim Reif assert claims in New York to Fritz Grunbaum’s artworks, D.A. Morgenthau seizure at MoMA • New York Court of Appeals quashes D.A. Morgenthau’s subpoena of Portrait of Wally and Dead City • Orders MoMA to return artworks to Austria • Next day, U.S. Attorney seizes only Portrait of Wally • Missing heirs for Grunbaum’s Dead City – returned to Austria, now at Leopold Museum in Vienna • Portrait of Wally case still pending 11 years later before Judge Preska in the SDNY – summary judgment motions being briefed this Spring 7 1999 Morgenthau Seizure • Tremendous international scandal • Led to Austria opening archives to return Jewish property to comply with 1955 Austrian State Treaty • Austria reformed laws to permit claims to stolen art in museums only • Led to Washington conference on stolen art • Museums agreed to “Washington Principles” – research their collections, favorable evidentiary burdens, encouraging heirs to come forward • Museums promised to publish all provenance research, welcome heirs • www.lootedartcommission.com/Washington-principles 8 U.S. Museums and Auction Houses Violate the Washington Principles • Failed to hire provenance researchers and public research • Publishing false, misleading and incomplete provenance research making research impossible • Suing Jewish heirs, accusing heirs of greed and extortion • Auction houses peddle unprovenanced works • Toledo and Detroit museums, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, • MoMA and Guggenheim sued heirs of Holocaust victims • U.S. museums assert laches and statute of limitations defenses • U.S. museums claim Jews voluntarily sold artworks during Holocaust • Museums and auction houses falsely claim Holocaust- looted art was unknown until 1990’s in U.S. 9 2009 Prague Conference on Stolen Art • June 26-31, 2009 • Decade after Washington Conference • U.S. State Department sending envoy to get world’s museums to agree to return stolen art • Will be a major issue for Obama Administration • Proposal for a U.S. Restitution Commission likely • Wrongful actions of U.S. museums likely to be a diplomatic sore spot 10 Fritz Grunbaum Born April 7, 1880 Brno, Moravia Died January 14, 1941 Dachau Concentration Camp 11 www.imdb.com -Famous film star Berlin -Famous cabaret performer -Famous writer Part of Austria’s “Abbott & Costello” – style comedy team 12 Hitler Invades Austria March 12, 1938 The Nazis reach Vienna Hitler salutes his troops marching into Austria 13 Fritz at Dachau – Arrested 3/22/1938 – Died in Captivity While at Dachau, Fritz and other prisoners participated in Cabaret performances to keep spirits up. Performances were supported by the Nazis and scheduled on the same day as trains taking prisoners to death camps. 14 Heirs’ Claim to Title: Heirs of Fritz Grunbaum • Austrian co-heirs under 2003 Estate Assignment Certificate (Probate Decree) • Fritz predeceased wife, no issue • Fritz and Elizabeth (“Lily”) had separate property Under Austrian law: • Fritz’s heirs take 50% of Fritz’s property • Elizabeth’s (“Lily”) heirs take 50% of Fritz’s property 15 Jewish Property Declarations • April 26, 1938 Law - penalty of imprisonment/confiscation • Required for Jews with over 5,000 RM • Filed every three months until property gone or left Reich • November 12, 1938 Property became available to the Reich • Systematically liquidated through Aryan trustees • Art Collection Category IV “Other Property” 16 Fritz Grunbaum Jewish Property Declarations – Filed by Lily under power of attorney, pain of imprisonment – Six declarations filed July, 1938 through June 30, 1939 – Contained art collection Franz Kieslinger appraisal at 5,791 RM – Last time art collection declared was June 30, 1939 – almost a year after Mathilde Lukacs left Vienna 17 Grunbaum Assets1938-1942 (Per Jewish Property Declarations) 18 Kieslinger Inventory • Annexed to July 1938 Fritz Grunbaum property declaration • Fritz was at Dachau since March 1938 • Lists 449 artworks belonging to Fritz • 81 Schieles • 5 Schiele oils by name – Dead City, Town on the Blue River • 76 Drawings and watercolors (untitled) 19 Kieslinger Inventory • Establishes unequivocally that Dead City stolen from Fritz Grunbaum’s Vienna apartment • Fritz died penniless in Dachau in January 1941 • Artworks never restituted to him or his family 20 The Kieslinger Inventory “Large drawing by Schiele, 55 works colored, 20 drawings and 1 print by Schiele” Dead City 21 Who were Kajetan Muhlmann and Franz Kieslinger? • Muhlmann based Nazi operations in Holland to oversee laundering of title to artworks looted throughout the Reich. • Franz Kieslinger was Muhlmann’s Muhlmann has been henchman described as “arguably the single • In July, 1938 Kieslinger most prodigious art plunderer in the inventoried Fritz Grunbaum’s art history of human collection civilization”* * Petropoulos, Jonathan, The Faustian Bargain (Oxford University Press 1990) at 170-204). 22 Vienna’s Dorotheum – Sales Outlet for Stolen Jewish Property • According to Sotheby’s Lucien Simmons “a clearinghouse for the Gestapo” • Franz Kieslinger was a Dorotheum expert • Following inventory of FG collection Kieslinger went on to become a notorious Nazi art looter • Managing director of Aryanized Weinmuller Auction house in late 1938 • Shows corruption, opportunity, motive and probability 23 November 18, 1938 Nazi Finance Ministry Decree on Jewish Property 24 11/18/1938 Nazi Finance Ministry Report “Other Property” Refers to Category IV in Jewish Property Declarations 1. Shows Nazis considered Jewish art collections “available to the Reich” and liquid assets 2. Shows Nazis liquidating Jewish art collections to finance war machine as of November 18, 1938 25 At least nine percent of the Nazi total government budget in 1938-39 was stolen from Jews (approximately 1.5 billion Reichsmarks). Aly, Goetz, Hitler’s Beneficiaries (Metropolitan Books 2006) at 48. 26 Evidence Fritz’s Art Collection Stolen • Art collection Category IV (“Other Property”) • “Gesperrt” stamp in Category IV • “Erledigt” stamp in Category IV • Shows Nazis considered Grunbaum “case closed” 27 Grunbaum’s Aryan Trustee – Ludwig Rochlitzer • By Nazi law of December 3, 1938, Aryan trustees were empowered to transfer and sell Jewish assets and to render proceeds to the Reich to finance the Nazi war machine (DBM 5806-5812) • By letter dated January 31, 1939, Rochlitzer informs Lily he is in charge of her property and demands extortionate fees • Rochlitzer’s fee and expenses = 6,500 RM 28 Letter dated January 31, 1939 Establishes Lily and Fritz lost legal control of assets practical ability to transfer any assets as of January 31, 1939 29 Art Collection Spoliation Timeline • April 26, 1938 – Jewish Property Declaration Law gives Marshal Hermann Goering control over Jewish assets • September 8, 1938 – Grunbaum’s collection deposited with Nazi storage company (Schenker) • November 12, 1938 – Jewish Property Declared “available” to the Reich • January 31, 1939 – Aryan trustee appointed to control and liquidate Grunbaum property • June 30, 1939 – Lily declares intact art collection to Nazis • November 14, 1941 – Fritz is dead, Lily’s only remaining property is estate in Slovakia • October 5, 1942 – Lily murdered penniless in death camp in Minsk, Belarus 30 Power of Attorney Used To Steal Fritz’s Property • Art collection listed as Fritz’s in Jewish Property Declarations • Lily needed power of attorney from Fritz to liquidate property and life insurance policy • Power of attorney executed in Dachau • Powers of attorney void as a matter of Austrian law - used to systematically force Jews in concentration camps to liquidate property • Thus, during Fritz’s stay in Dachau, any
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