AT THE ALLEN / SPRING 2024 / 3 Egon Schiele (Austrian, 1890–1918), Girl with Black Hair, 1911. Watercolor and graphite pencil on paper. she returned to Vienna several times in the late 1940s and early 1950s, where, if the drawing remained there, she might have retrieved it. Sadly, the crucial facts as to how she came to possess it and other artworks she sold to the Bern gallery remain unknown, and died with her in 1979. Additionally, it is not clear that the drawing was, in 1938, in Grünbaum’s collection, which was inventoried by the Nazis—albeit not with specific identifying details regarding his many Schiele drawings. While in 1928 he owned a drawing described similarly to this one, Schiele made many drawings of young girls, such that it is not possible to categorically state that this drawing is that—nor that, if it were, that it remained in his collection in 1938. Several lawsuits, regarding other drawings that may have been in Grünbaum’s collection, have made their way through the courts. A federal district judge in 2008 wrote that the Grünbaum heirs failed to produce “any concrete evidence that the Nazis looted [a similar] drawing or that it was otherwise taken fromGrünbaum.” That decision was appealed, and in September 2010 the court of appeals vacated it and remanded the case for consideration under New York law. The judge’s decision prevailed, in 2011; there, it was stated that “While an inventory may have been a preliminary step in the looting of Jewish property, it is not proof that the drawing was seized. Indeed the drawing was not specifically catalogued in the inventory andmay not have even been among the unnamed works of art in Grünbaum’s apartment. In any event Lukacs’ possession of the drawing after WorldWar II strongly indicates that such a seizure never occurred. Accordingly, what little evidence exists—that the drawing belonged to Grünbaum and was sold by one of his heirs after WorldWar II—suffices to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the drawing was not looted by the Nazis.” In 2012, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals further upheld that decision. Yet another, later case, in New York state, regarding a different drawing, found for the Grünbaum heirs; that decision was upheld on appeal, when it was noted that even if Grünbaum’s sisterin-law had the works, her possession wasn’t equivalent to legal title. In September 2023, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office obtained warrants authorizing the seizure of this drawing and others. That office contends that the Nazi regime stole the drawings fromGrünbaum and that they rightly belong to his heirs; they dispute that they ever were lawfully held by Mathilde Lukacs. While we believe it has not been definitively established that the drawing was looted fromGrünbaum’s collection, the College has voluntarily turned it over, hoping that this will provide some measure of closure to the family. While this is certainly a loss to the collection, I want you to know that the Allen takes provenance issues very seriously. Our staff has devoted, and will continue to devote, great energy to researching the ownership history of collection works, and will always strive to ensure that any works entering the collection do so both legally and ethically. Andria Derstine John G. W. Cowles Director
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