http://www.leopoldmuseum.org/BOSTON, MA - The Leopold Museum in Vienna is holding art that was stolen by Nazis from Jewish owners, according to allegations by Austria’s Green Party and the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (IKG), Austria’s main Jewish legal body. After the museum opened an exhibition of work by the Austrian artist Albin Egger-Lienz on 14 February, Wolfgang Zinggl, a member of Austria’s Green Party, issued a statement saying that 14 Nazi-looted works were included in the display. An additional painting not in the show but held in the museum’s permanent collection, Houses on the Lake, 1914, by Egon Schiele, was also alleged to have been stolen by the Nazis from Jewish owner Jenny Steiner.
Leopold Museum director Dr Rudolf Leopold responded that he had not known the provenance of Houses until 1998, when Austrian archives were opened. But according to Erika Jakubovits, executive director of the IKG, Dr Leopold would have known when he bought the work in 1953 that Jenny Steiner was its prior owner. Dr Leopold himself published a catalogue raisonné of Schiele’s work in 1972 which lists Ms Steiner as the former owner of Houses. In 1994 Dr Leopold said in an interview that, since 1950, he had owned and relied on the 1930 Schiele catalogue raisonné by Otto Kallir-Nirenstein, which also names Ms Steiner as the owner of the painting. Ms Steiner’s art losses to the Nazis are broadly known to art restitution experts and the public, Ms Jakubovits told The Art Newspaper.
artwork: Albin Egger-Lienz Österreichische Galerie (Not in Leopold exhibition)On 20 February, the Green Party held a press conference saying that Dr Leopold was wrongly holding the paintings. The Leopold issued a press release the next day, saying that when Dr Leopold bought Houses in 1953, he had in fact known that Jenny Steiner was the former owner, but had not known that she was Jewish. Dr Leopold’s art-buying advisors and friends were deeply involved in Nazi dealings with art looted from Jewish families, Ms Jakubovits told The Art Newspaper, and his leading advisors would have known that Ms Steiner owned Houses and was Jewish, she said.
On 1 February, the IKG gave the Austrian Ministry of Culture a legal opinion by Austrian law professor Walter Berka as to whether Austria’s law requiring restitution of Nazi-looted art could apply to the Leopold Museum. The restitution law applies to federal museums but not private institutions. The Leopold Museum is privately owned, but the government funded its construction, subsidises it, and gave it the funds to purchase Dr Leopold’s collection. The Minister of Cultural Affairs said it was examining the issue of the Leopold to see if a resolution could be found.
On 10 March, the IKG presented a second legal opinion, by law professor Georg Graf, concluding that 11 paintings in the Leopold’s collection from six different Jewish owners had been looted by the Nazis. All of the art would have to be restituted if the Leopold were subject to the restitution laws, the report says. In a press release dated 13 March, the Leopold said that it was investigating Professor Graf’s report and would issue a statement to various members of the Austrian government.
©2008 The Art Newspaper ... By Martha Lufkin | From Museums | Posted: 24.4.08
Return Nazi-looted art, panel tells Austrian museum
November 24, 2010
(JTA) -- An Austrian government panel recommended that the Leopold Museum in Austria return seven paintings looted from Jewish owners by the Nazis.
The art commission established by the Austrian Ministry of Culture said Nov. 23 that the paintings -- five by Egon Schiele and two by Anton Romako -- should be restituted to the heirs of their former owners, Karl Maylaender and Maurice Eisler.
The decision is non-binding, Bloomberg reported.
The paintings are currently part of the Leopold Museum Private Foundation. The museum paid $19 million earlier this year to settle another restitution case, according to Bloomberg. It is currently working to complete research into the origins of its entire collection.
Diethard Leopold, a Viennese psychotherapist whose father founded the Leopold Museum, is aiming to settle all outstanding Nazi-era claims for art in its collection within a year.
Leopold, who is 54, was appointed to the board of the museum’s foundation by his father in June, days before Rudolf Leopold’s death. In July, the museum agreed to pay $19 million to the heirs of the Jewish art dealer Lea Bondi Jaray to settle a decades-long dispute over Egon Schiele’s portrait of his lover Wally, stolen by the Nazis in the 1930s.
“The museum is striving to solve these problems in a speedy, effective, comprehensive and, most of all, amicable manner,” Leopold said over coffee in the museum cafe yesterday. “I do feel that more weight should have been put behind these efforts in the past. A solution within the coming year is a realistic option. I don’t think it should take longer.”
The Leopold Museum owns 44 Schiele paintings and 180 works on paper, the biggest collection of the artist worldwide. During Rudolf Leopold’s lifetime -- he died on June 29 at the age of 85 -- the museum argued that as a private foundation, it was not subject to Austria’s restitution law, which only applies to federal government museums. It is planning to sell some of the Schiele works on paper to pay for the “Wally” purchase.
Its failure to resolve claims by Nazi victims and their heirs led to protests by groups such as the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien, which hung posters and stuck tape around the museum declaring it an “art crime scene” in 2008.
Reputation ‘Damaged’
“The last 10 years have damaged the reputation of the museum,” said the bespectacled Leopold, who has bushy eyebrows and wears an open-necked shirt and suit. “Under Austrian law, the Leopold Museum is unambiguously the owner of these works. But I do not believe that we should insist on our legal prerogative and say that is the end of the story.
“We are very much aware that not all of the crimes that were committed in the Nazi era have been addressed so far,” Leopold said. “We are also aware that in those cases where it is in our power to set the record straight, speedy and effective solutions are required. In principle we now want to speak to the heirs directly -- I think that is the most effective way.”
Leopold said he has grasped the initiative himself, approaching the heirs. An Austrian government panel found that three paintings in the museum’s collection by Anton Romako should be returned to the heir of Oskar Reichel, one of Vienna’s most important prewar collectors.
Talks With Heiress
“There is an heiress, a private person who lives in Vienna,” Leopold said. “I wrote to her and she phoned back and we met up. I just didn’t want to wait any longer. The contact was positive. I am optimistic we will come to a solution soon.”
One of the most high-profile outstanding restitution cases involves Schiele’s “Houses by the Sea,” which belonged to Jenny Steiner, whose art collection was seized by the Gestapo. Leopold said he has proposed selling the painting at auction and dividing the revenue according to an agreed percentage between the heirs and the museum.
“Or we can restitute it and simultaneously buy it back for a proportion of the value that is agreed upon beforehand,” Leopold said. “I am more in favor of the second solution as we then know the painting would stay on public view. It will be difficult to unite the heirs in a common approach.”
Wally’s Return
“Wally” returns to Vienna at the end of this week and the Leopold Museum will stage a special exhibition focusing on the history of Schiele and his muse, who volunteered as a nurse in World War I and died in Croatia. The painting will be displayed with a notice explaining its provenance, a text agreed by the museum and the heirs.
Leopold said he’s confident that “Wally” is worth the $19 million the museum will pay. The foundation’s sale of works to pay for it will probably be at an international auction in the next three years, Leopold said. Rudolf Leopold drew up a list of the works that could be sold before his death.
“The price was certainly a bit higher because my father absolutely wanted the painting back,” he said. “But there are many times over the years when everyone said my father paid too much for an artwork and that he was crazy, then 10 years later, they say it was cheap. This could happen with ‘Wally’ too.”
Provenance Research
Leopold estimates that only about 1 percent of the museum’s artworks come from Jewish prewar collections, so not more than 50 works. He aims to complete provenance research on those paintings by the end of the year.
“It has taken a long time to do the work so far,” he said. “If we put it on track now, we can do it.”
Once the claims are resolved, Leopold said he wants to hold an exhibition about Viennese prewar collections, examining the fate of their owners and the artworks.
The psychologist wrote a book about his father’s passion for collecting that was published in 2008. He laughed when asked whether he has a similar obsession.
“My obsession is in another area -- I do Japanese archery,” he said. “It is an art, very subtle and existential. It gives me the strength and balance to deal with this sensitive and thorny business.”
