A long-running legal battle in upstate New York court has finally concluded with the award of a multi-million dollar painting looted by the Nazis to the Bronx heir of an art collector killed in the Holocaust. The painting in question is Viennese artist Egon Schiele’s 1917 watercolor “Portrait of the Artist’s Wife”. The award was given to Eva Zirkl, who was the only surviving heir of Karl Maylander, an Austrian art collector who owned the painting before being deported to Poland and murdered by the Nazis. As Zirkl passed away earlier this year, the painting will now go to the Susan Zirkl Memorial Foundation Trust, a charity dedicated to autism research.
During a bench trial held earlier this year, three parties claimed ownership of the painting. The heirs of Schiele’s dentist and Viennese art collector Dr. Heinrich Rieger argued that he owned the painting before it was seized by the Nazis due to Schiele’s work being considered “degenerate” art. The Robert “Robin” Owen Lehman family foundation, who purchased the painting in 1964 in London, also claimed ownership and wanted to auction it to support music education and classical music appreciation. The painting was insured for $10 million when the foundation took it to Christie’s for auction in 2017, which led to the alerting of Jewish authorities in Vienna and the beginning of a complex legal process.
The legal saga surrounding the painting was the first case about Nazi-looted art to go to trial in the US. State Supreme Court Justice Daniel J. Doyle issued an 87-page ruling that mostly favored the Maylander heirs, based on the evidence presented during the trial. The court acknowledged the challenges of relying on limited information from several decades ago but ultimately decided in favor of the Zirkl family. Oren Warshavsky, a partner at the law firm BakerHostetler, expressed satisfaction with the ruling, believing it was the right decision that helped restore dignity and justice to Holocaust victims and their families.
The Robert Owen Lehman Foundation and the Rieger family have not provided any comments on the ruling or indicated whether they plan to appeal. The foundation had intended to auction the painting to support music education and classical music appreciation, but the court’s decision has awarded the painting to the Zirkl Memorial Foundation Trust. The painting, which depicts the artist’s wife, Edith, in a patterned dress and brownish-orange jacket, has an estimated value of several million dollars. The legal battle over the ownership of the painting and its history of being looted by the Nazis highlights the ongoing efforts to address issues of restitution for artwork stolen during the Holocaust and to bring closure to the families of victims like Karl Maylander.
