Entartete Kunst “Degenerate Art” Murder, Mystery and In 1937, the Nazis declared a large number of artworks as “degenerate” if “un-German” or Jewish. Egon Schiele’s Dead City 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. Swiss laundering of stolen Hitler visits the Entartete Kunst exhibit in 1937 Austrian art Judisches Museum, Berlin 18 May 2009 7:30 pm Raymond J. Dowd Partner – Dunnington Bartholow & Miller LLP 2 New York NY 1933-1945 – Jews Stripped of On Nazi-Looted Art: Artworks “This is such a gigantic issue,” Cleveland • 25% Reich Flight Tax Museum of Art Director Robert P. Bergman said. ``We're talking about hundreds of • 25% Atonement Tax thousands of objects. I believe that for the • 96% Confiscatory foreign exchange rate for Jews rest of my professional career, this • Blocked bank accounts issue will face the museums of the • Sham transactions world.'‘ • Wholesale confiscations of Jews (AP/Akron Beacon Journal 3/1/1998). • Tens of thousands of artworks left Germany and Bergman died at age 54 in 1999 after a entered the U.S. directly and through Switzerland two-week illness of a rare blood disorder • Snapped up by U.S. museums and wealthy (NY Times 5/7/99). collectors 3 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 Egon Schiele’s Portrait of Wally – 1998 Morgenthau Seizure from MOMA as stolen --- with Fritz Grunbaum’s Dead City 5 6 1 1999 Seizure Quashed, U.S. Attorney 1999 Morgenthau Seizure Seizes Portrait of Wally • Rita and Tim Reif assert claims in New York to Fritz • Tremendous international scandal Grunbaum’s artworks, D.A. Morgenthau seizure at • Led to Austria opening archives to return Jewish MoMA property to comply with 1955 Austrian State Treaty • New York Court of Appeals quashes D.A. Morgenthau’s • Austria reformed laws to permit claims to stolen art in museums only subpoena of Portrait of Wally and Dead City • Led to Washington conference on stolen art • Orders MoMA to return artworks to Austria • Museums agreed to “Washington Principles” – research • Next day, U.S. Attorney seizes only Portrait of Wally their collections, favorable evidentiary burdens, • Missing heirs for Grunbaum’s Dead City – returned to encouraging heirs to come forward Austria, now at Leopold Museum in Vienna • Museums promised to publish all provenance research, • Portrait of Wally case still pending 11 years later before welcome heirs Judge Preska in the SDNY – summary judgment • www.lootedartcommission.com/Washington-principles motions being briefed this Spring 7 8 U.S. Museums and Auction Houses 2009 Prague Conference on Stolen Violate the Washington Principles Art • Failed to hire provenance researchers and public research • June 26-31, 2009 • Publishing false, misleading and incomplete provenance • Decade after Washington Conference research making research impossible • Suing Jewish heirs, accusing heirs of greed and extortion • U.S. State Department sending envoy to get • Auction houses peddle unprovenanced works world’s museums to agree to return stolen art • Toledo and Detroit museums, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, • Will be a major issue for Obama Administration • MoMA and Guggenheim sued heirs of Holocaust victims • U.S. museums assert laches and statute of limitations • Proposal for a U.S. Restitution Commission defenses likely • U.S. museums claim Jews voluntarily sold artworks during Holocaust • Wrongful actions of U.S. museums likely to be a • Museums and auction houses falsely claim Holocaust- diplomatic sore spot looted art was unknown until 1990’s in U.S. 9 10 www.imdb.com -Famous film star Berlin -Famous cabaret performer -Famous writer Fritz Grunbaum Born April 7, 1880 Brno, Moravia Part of Austria’s “Abbott & Costello” – style Died January 14, 1941 Dachau Concentration Camp 11 comedy team 12 2 Hitler Invades Austria Fritz at Dachau – Arrested March 12, 1938 3/22/1938 – Died in Captivity The Nazis reach Vienna While at Dachau, Fritz and other prisoners participated in Cabaret performances to keep spirits up. Performances were Hitler salutes his troops marching into Austria supported by the Nazis and scheduled on the same day as trains taking prisoners to 13 death camps. 14 Heirs’ Claim to Title: Heirs of Fritz Jewish Property Declarations Grunbaum • April 26, 1938 Law - penalty of • Austrian co-heirs under 2003 Estate imprisonment/confiscation Assignment Certificate (Probate Decree) • Required for Jews with over • Fritz predeceased wife, no issue 5,000 RM • Filed every three months • Fritz and Elizabeth (“Lily”) had separate until property gone or left property Reich • November 12, 1938 Under Austrian law: Property became available to the Reich • Fritz’s heirs take 50% of Fritz’s property • Systematically liquidated • Elizabeth’s (“Lily”) heirs take 50% of Fritz’s through Aryan trustees • Art Collection Category IV property “Other Property” 15 16 Fritz Grunbaum Jewish Property Grunbaum Assets1938-1942 Declarations (Per 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 18 3 Kieslinger Inventory Kieslinger Inventory • Annexed to July 1938 Fritz Grunbaum • Establishes unequivocally that Dead City property declaration stolen from Fritz Grunbaum’s Vienna • Fritz was at Dachau since March 1938 apartment • Lists 449 artworks belonging to Fritz • Fritz died penniless in Dachau in January • 81 Schieles 1941 • 5 Schiele oils by name – Dead City, Town • Artworks never restituted to him or his on the Blue River family • 76 Drawings and watercolors (untitled) 19 20 The Kieslinger Inventory Who were Kajetan Muhlmann and “Large drawing by Schiele, 55 Franz Kieslinger? works colored, 20 drawings and 1 print by Schiele” • Muhlmann based Nazi operations Dead City 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 21 University Press 1990) at 170-204). 22 Vienna’s Dorotheum – Sales Outlet for November 18, 1938 Nazi Finance Ministry Stolen Jewish Property Decree on 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 24 4 11/18/1938 Nazi Finance Ministry Report “Other Property” Refers to Category IV in Jewish Property Declarations At least nine percent of the Nazi total 1. Shows Nazis considered Jewish art collections “available to the government budget in 1938-39 was stolen Reich” and liquid assets from Jews (approximately 1.5 billion 2. Shows Nazis liquidating Jewish art collections to finance war Reichsmarks). machine as of November 18, 1938 Aly, Goetz, Hitler’s Beneficiaries (Metropolitan Books 2006) at 48. 25 26 Evidence Fritz’s Art Collection Grunbaum’s Aryan Trustee – Stolen Ludwig Rochlitzer • By Nazi law of December 3, 1938, Aryan • Art collection Category trustees were empowered to transfer and sell IV (“Other Property”) Jewish assets and to render proceeds to the • “Gesperrt” stamp in Reich to finance the Nazi war machine Category IV (DBM 5806-5812) • By letter dated January 31, 1939, Rochlitzer • “Erledigt” stamp in informs Lily he is in charge of her property and Category IV demands extortionate fees • Shows Nazis • Rochlitzer’s fee and expenses = 6,500 RM considered Grunbaum “case closed” 27 28 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 Letter dated January 31, 1939 • November 14, 1941 – Fritz is dead, Lily’s only remaining Establishes Lily and Fritz lost legal control of assets practical ability to property is estate in Slovakia transfer any assets as of January 31, • October 5, 1942 – Lily murdered penniless in death camp 1939 29 in Minsk, Belarus 30 5 Power of Attorney Used To Steal Fritz’s Property Minsk • Art collection listed as Fritz’s in Jewish Property Declarations Lily Grunbaum was deported to Minsk where she died on October 5, • Lily needed power of attorney from Fritz to 1942. Minsk was a death camp. 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 transfers by illegal power of attorney were void 31 32 Powers of Attorney Grunbaum’s Dachau Power of Attorney “There is a curious respect for legal formalities. The signature of the person • July 1938 - Fritz Grunbaum executes a power of attorney permitting his wife to liquidate his despoiled is always obtained, even if the property, including life insurance policies person in question has to be sent to Dachau in order to break down his • 1946 Austrian Nullification Act – Austria nullifies resistance.” all transactions flowing from powers of attorney executed by concentration camp inmates - U.S.