‘History’s greatest robbery’: Jewish cabaret star’s heirs get back artwork stolen by Nazis


Artwork stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish cabaret star who openly derided Adolf Hitler and was later pushed into a concentration camp has finally been returned to his heirs.

Seven pieces of art made by Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele that were looted from Fritz Grünbaum by the Nazis have been returned to his heirs more than 80 years after they were taken.

Valued collectively at $9.5m, the pieces of art were returned to Grünbaum’s family during a ceremony and press conference Wednesday in New York. The family had been fighting to reclaim the looted art.


Grünbaum, a popular Austrian cabaret performer and songwriter, had amassed a trove of almost 450 pieces of art before the Second World War began. This trove included 81 sketches and paintings by Schiele, a protege of Gustav Klimt.

Grünbaum’s routines openly derided Nazism and Hitler and were banned. He was arrested in 1938 and imprisoned at Dachau concentration camp in southern Germany, according to the Holocaust research project Music and the Holocaust.

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