Artwork believed to have been stolen from a Jewish art collector and entertainer during the Holocaust has been seized from museums in three states with prosecutors contending they rightfully belong to the family of the victim of the Nazis.
The three works by the Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele were all previously owned by the cabaret performer Fritz Grünbaum, who died at the Dachau concentration camp in 1941.
Prosecutors in New York said art was seized on Wednesday from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio.
Warrants issued by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office say there is reasonable cause to believe the three items are stolen property.
Grünbaum’s heirs had previously