PITTSBURGH — A piece of art believed to have been stolen from a Holocaust victim by Nazis was seized from the Carnegie Museum of Art by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Wednesday.
It’s one of three museums that had a piece of art seized just this week.
Laura Chener of the Jewish Federatiaon of Greater Pittsburgh said there is tons of artwork out there that was stolen from holocaust victims by Nazis.
“The reality is there were hundreds of thousands upwards of pieces of artwork that were stolen from Jewish families, Jewish collectors during the Holocaust, so it’s not surprising at all to think that one would end up potentially at a local museum,” Cherner said.
“Portrait of a Man,” is the one that has been on display at the Carnegie Museum of Art.
There were two others -- one at the Art Institute of Chicago and another at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio.
“This is unusual to be on this scale to have three prominent museums owning the pieces in question,” Cherner said.
All of the pieces were done by artist Egon Schiele, and owned by Fritz Grünbaum.
Grünbaum was a prominent Jewish art collector and cabaret singer. His family said he owned more than 400 pieces of art, many by Schiele, that were looted by Nazis when he was taken to Dachau concentration camp where he died in 1941.
Cherner said it’s important for families of holocaust survivors to try and find their stolen possessions.
“Having survivors and descendants make sure that they tell the story of this is ‘who my family was, this is who my father, my son, my uncle, this is who they were’ and this is a part of their legacy,” Cherner said.
The Carnegie Museum of Art sent Channel 11 this statement saying, “Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh is deeply committed to our mission of preserving the resources of art and science by acting in accordance with ethical, legal, and professional requirements and norms. We will of course cooperate fully with inquiries from the relevant authorities.”
Cherner is thankful that is the case.
“That’s not the fault of the owner, but making sure that you fully cooperate and try to get to the bottom of what are the origins of this piece, and if it turns out that it does belong to the family of a victim of the Holocaust, making sure that you make that right to fully cooperate,” Cherner said.
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