Stolen Artworks Returned to Descendants of Jewish Cabaret Performer Fritz Grünbaum

The recovered pieces, part of a collection seized by Nazis, were held by American museums and are now set to be auctioned for a charitable cause.

Two artworks stolen by Nazis from Fritz Grünbaum, a Jewish cabaret performer and art collector, have been returned to his descendants by New York prosecutors.
The returned pieces, Egon Schiele’s 1911 drawing, “Girl with Black Hair,” and “Portrait of a Man” from 1917, were held by Oberlin College’s Allen Museum of Art and the Carnegie Museum of Art respectively.
Grünbaum, who was outspoken against Hitler in his act, is believed to have owned at least 450 works of art before the Nazis annexed Austria. His relatives have retrieved about a dozen so far.
The family has active litigation to recover a dozen pieces that belonged to Grünbaum that are in Austrian museums.
The family auctions the recovered pieces and uses the proceeds towards a trust that provides scholarships for high school musicians from underrepresented communities.