A New York judge has ordered the Art Institute of Chicago to return a 1916 Egon Schiele drawing to the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian Jewish art collector persecuted during the second world war.
In the ruling, Judge Althea Drysdale sided with state authorities who argued the work was looted during the Holocaust. The drawing, acquired by the Art Institute in 1966, is among several Schiele works once owned by Grünbaum that have surfaced in various private and public collections.
Drysdale ruled the museum failed to adequately scrutinize the drawing’s provenance, relying on now-discredited records from Swiss dealer Eberhard Kornfeld, who claimed to have bought the work from Grünbaum’s sister-in-law. Authorities overseeing the dispute presented evidence that Kornfeld forged documents in order to sell the works discretely.
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The Art Institute challenged the Manhattan district attorney’s maneuvering, calling the matter a civil dispute and arguing the work has never in been proven to be stolen property. Drysdale ruled New York authorities had jurisdiction, citing that the drawing has passed through a New York gallery during a private sale, ultimately concluding the work has been stolen for more than eighty years.
The museum displayed the piece for years until it was seized in 2023. The legal dispute ran for a shorter time than many comparable restitution cases that involve museums of the Art Institute’s size and prestige. The decision marks another milestone for Grünbaum’s heirs, who have pursued other restitution claims related to their family’s collection for many years.
The latest ruling comes a year after the museum had secured a temporary legal win over the drawing’s ownership. In a decision filed in February 2024, New York Judge John G. Koeltl dismissed a previous motion the heirs had filed, which asked the court to reconsider a claim from the fall that halted their attempt to get the painting restituted. In that decision, the judge sided with the museum, allowing it to continue to hold the Schiele’s painting in its collection.
“We’re disappointed in the ruling,” a spokesperson for the Art Institute told ARTnews in a statement. The museum will seek to appeal the decision, they said.
