Nazi-looted artwork returned to relatives of Holocaust victim over 80 years later: Manhattan DA

NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A piece of artwork stolen by the Nazis was returned to the family of Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian-Jewish cabaret performer, marking the 11th Nazi-looted piece to be returned by the Manhattan D.A.'s Office, prosecutors said Friday.

The artwork, "Seated Nude Woman, front view" drawn in 1918, was returned from the estate of Gustav “Gus” Papanek. When the office approached the Papanek family with evidence of the drawing’s theft, Papanek’s heirs fully cooperated with the investigation and agreed to return the drawing.

The Papanek family, Austrian Jews who fled the Nazis in 1938, bought the artwork without knowing it had been stolen from Grünbaum.

“The history behind Nazi-looted art is horrific and tragic, and the consequences are still impacting victims and their families to this day,” Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg said. “It is inspiring to see both the Grünbaum and Papanek families join together to reflect on their shared history and preserve the legacy of Fritz Grünbaum."

Grünbaum owned hundreds of artworks before he was captured by the Nazis in 1938 and was forced to give power of attorney to his wife, Elisabeth, while imprisoned in Dachau. She was later compelled to hand over his entire art collection to Nazi officials. Both Grünbaums died in concentration camps during the war.

Grünbaum’s collection was inventoried by the Nazis and stored in the Nazi-controlled warehouse Schenker & Co A.G. in September 1938. The Schiele collection did not resurface until 1956 when it was found in Switzerland and sold by Eberhard Kornfeld.

Kornfeld then sold most of Grünbaum’s Schieles to Otto Kallir, the owner of the NYC-based Galerie St. Etienne. Later Ernst and Helene Papanek, Gus Papanek’s parents, who had fled Nazi persecution in 1938 and emigrated to the United States in 1940, purchased the drawing from Kallir in 1961.

Gus received the drawing as a gift from his parents in 1969, and it remained in his estate until his death in 2022. The office approached the family in 2024 and they agreed to return the drawing.

Last year, the DA’s office returned seven Schiele artworks from the Museum of Modern Art, The Ronald Lauder Collection, The Morgan Library, The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Vally Sabarsky Trust in Manhattan. Additionally, collector Michael Lesh gave an artwork directly to the family in October 2023. In January 2024, two more artworks were returned, one from the Allen Museum of Art at Oberlin College and the other from the Carnegie Museum of Art.