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Created: February 27, 2003
Latest Update: February 27, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Egon Schiele and Restitution

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, February 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

This essay is based on an article in the New York Times that touches on Egon Schiele, one of my favorite artists: Lauder's Mix of Restitution and Collecting By Celestine Bohlen. New York Times, February 26, 2003, at p. B 1. Backup. I was attracted to the article by the Egon Schiele. He's one of Lauder's favorite artists, too.

The article itself focuses on the problems of restitution for art stolen by the Nazis, often from Jews. And it raises many of the questions around restitution. Only very recently have museums begun to recognize the Nazi plunder of art and return art they bought to the heirs of its rightful owners. Why go back to misdeeds of fifty years ago? Sometimes there is a need to recapture something at least of what was taken from them. And certainly there is a need, as with the Truth Commissions that have followed powerful and corrupt regimes, to acknowledge the truth, to establish the reality perceived by the victims and denied by the regime.

The article provides a good sense of all the problems inherent in restitution for past, way past wrongs. It also provides a good sense of the extent to which whole nations have practiced denial of an unjust reality. And restitution is complex in that often the one wronged is no longer there for compensation, and the social and economic costs of genuine reparation are enormous.

"Tina Walzer, an Austrian art historian, said of the Grunbaum case: "There's never been restitution. What we know for sure is the Grunbaums were expropriated and that some of these objects reappear in Switzerland in 1956."

Museums like Mr. Lauder's with art from this collection "should at least make public that this once belonged to the Grunbaum collection," Ms. Walzer said, adding: "Why not make plaques that say where they came from? I think that would be a fair solution."

. . . from the article.

Photo by Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY, from the NYTimes

"Self-Portrait as a Prisoner: I Love Antitheses" (1912) by Egon Schiele "[Schiele is] a favorite German Expressionist of Ronald S. Lauder. (His other is Gustav Klimt.) This work, watercolor and pencil, is about 19 by 12 inches."

The Schiele that attracted me to the article is one of the art works in question, one that is now known to have been part of the seized "collection of Fritz Grunbaum, a Viennese cabaret artist who was killed by the Nazis after they seized his art. His collection of Schiele drawings and watercolors was auctioned in Switzerland in 1956, and after the New York seizure of "Wally," the validity of the auction has been questioned, with no clarity about whether the works were ever in the possession of a lawful heir." (from the article)

Discussion Questions

1. What are some of the problem issues we encounter with restitution for wrongs done long ago?

   Consider the Egon Schiele Mr. Lauder owns. Could a cabaret artist have owned a Schiele? Or had he come by it unlawfully? (Remember he would have had this drawing in 1911, and Schiele wasn't famous then.) In that case, who should the restitution go to? Consider legal title of ownership? How do we establish it? The true owner has greater rights than anyone else. But what about the situation in which we don't know who the true owner was. Can't establish it. What then? What abou the rights of the present possessor? Does he/she have better rights than anyone except the true owner? What about the laws of heredity?

2. How do you feel about restitution when the heir of the True Owner, if that can be established, wants to just get "something, anything" back of what was taken from his family?

   Consider the devastation of having all you possess taken from you. Consider the ritualistic acknowledgment of what you or your family suffered in the recapturing of a piece of the past. Consider the conflict of interest in making art available to all through museums, and the individual's or family's need for acknowledgment of the wrongs.

3. What parallels do you see between restitution of art and restitution in money damages for past wrongs?

   Consider restitution for the interment of the Japanese during the Second World War. Consider restitution in this country for the wrongs of slavery. Consider the issue of limited economic resources and the role that restitution might play in redistributing resources. What particular issues arise when we attempt compensation with money damages? Can they make people whole? What about restitution for illness caused by smoking, illness caused by exposure to toxic elements in work, illness caused by natural disasters?