NEW YORK During his abbreviated lifetime, a cabaret performer named Fritz Grünbaum amassed a trove of artwork more than 400 pieces, including 80 sketches and paintings by the Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele that were ultimately plundered by the Nazis. For a while, many of those disappeared until they began to resurface over the years in auction houses
During his abbreviated lifetime, a cabaret performer named Fritz Grünbaum amassed a trove of artwork — more than 400 pieces, including 80 sketches and paintings by the Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele that were ultimately plundered by the Nazis.
Seven drawings by the Austrian artist Egon Schiele have been removed from arts institutions across the country, including New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and returned to the heirs of their former owner, whose collection was stolen by the Nazis during World War II.
The restitution of the drawings of Egon Schiele (1890-1918) represents an important victory for the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum. The Austrian Jewish artist and collector was deported to the Dachau concentration camp, where he died in 1941. His wife, Elisabeth, was then forced to hand over the entire collection to the Nazi authorities, before being deported and killed at the Maly Trostinec concentration camp. The works had reappeared on the art market in the 1950s, first in Switzerland, then resold on the New York square.