LEOPOLD MUSEUM ON THE GRÜNBAUM CASE

26.09.2023

We ask for your understanding that the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung is at present unable to comment on the Causa Grünbaum due to a lawsuit that has been filed in the US.

 

We would, however, like to refer to the meticulous provenance research conducted over many years, and to the resolution reached by an advisory board set up especially for the consideration of such issues (“Michalek Committee”). In the present case, the committee found no evidence that the works in question were confiscated during the Nazi era. The artworks were sold in the second half of the 1950s by Fritz Grünbaum’s sister-in-law Mathilde Lukacs to or via the Swiss art dealer Eberhard W. Kornfeld (Galerie Klipstein & Kornfeld). In its resolution reached on 18th November 2010, the committee concluded that if the examined works “were federal property and the Art Restitution Law were applicable” then based on the examined documents, “the case would not fulfil the criteria outlined in § 1 of the Art Restitution Act”.

 

For detailed information on Fritz Grünbaum, see the Lexicon of Austrian Provenance Research

For information on the Leopold Museum’s provenance research, see the Lexicon of Austrian Provenance Research

Decision of the advisory body of 18 November 2010 based on the dossier by Fritz Grünbaum

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