Christie’s Offers Six Restituted Schiele Works on Paper

NEW YORK – Christie’s is honored to announce that six important Egon Schiele works on paper recently restituted to the family of the works’ rightful owner, the Viennese cabaret and film star Fritz Grünbaum, will be sold in November during Marquee Week. Three watercolors will highlight the 9 November 20th Century Evening Sale, and two watercolors and a drawing will highlight the Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper Sale on 11 November. These exceptional pieces, which trace Schiele’s development during the pivotal years 1910 to 1915, were part of the collection numbering in the hundreds of works that Fritz Grünbaum – said to be the inspiration for Joel Gray’s character in the Broadway musical Cabaret – assembled in Vienna in the first decades of the last century. The collection was lost when the Nazis annexed Austria in the late 1930s, and both Mr. Grünbaum and his wife were sent to concentration camps where they perished. Christie’s and the Grünbaum family hope this sale will offer an opportunity to celebrate the life, art, and genius of Fritz Grünbaum. For more information about Fritz Grünbaum’s life, art, and heroism in the face of fascism, please visit Christie’s website.

THREE PIECES TO HIGHLIGHT CHRISTIE’S IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN WORKS ON PAPER SALE, 11 NOVEMBER 2023

Vanessa Fusco, Head of Impressionist & Modern Art, New York, said: “These six works, now reunited with the heirs of Fritz and Lilli Grünbaum after decades spent apart, together demonstrate, together demonstrate the artistic evolution of one of the 20^th century’s most provocative artists. From 1910, when Schiele emerged from under the shadow of his mentor Gustav Klimt with his own unique Expressionist style, seen in the three works from that date, to the skillfully rendered 1915 portrait of his wife, Edith, these six works underscore Schiele’s commitment to the exploration of the human condition. Schiele is known for frequently turning his gaze inward, and we are especially delighted to include two self-portraits in the 20^th Century Evening sale, psychologically complex images in which Schiele explores the formal language of the body as a material echo of the inner soul.”

Marc Porter, Chairman Christie’s Americas, said: “The return of the Grünbaum Schieles is a landmark moment in the history of restitution and a step forward in educating the world of the actual events of the Nazi occupation of Europe. The fiction that human beings threatened with their lives parted with their possessions with free will has been put to rest. Forced sales or those under duress are thefts—no less than lootings or seizures. I believe the next chapter is the further exploration of the history of Aryanization and economic crimes as we continue to learn more about the objects we sell and the people who owned them.”