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7 Egon Schiele portraits to be returned to heirs of Jewish cabaret star murdered in the Holocaust
(JTA) — Seven artworks by Egon Schiele will be returned to the heirs of a Jewish cabaret performer who had owned the pieces before being murdered in the Holocaust.
The works, most of them portraits of Schiele himself or his wife, were part of a massive art collection owned by the Viennese performer, Fritz Grünbaum, and are estimated to be worth a total of approximately $9.5 million. Grünbaum’s collection also included works by Albrecht Dürer, Auguste Rodin and Camille Pissarro, along with a total of 81 pieces by Schiele, an Austrian expressionist painter active in the early 20th century.
Before being seized by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office earlier this year, the works were in the possession of several prestigious institutions, including New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, Morgan Library, Vally Sabarsky Trust and Ronald Lauder Collection, as well as the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. All seven portraits were seized and voluntarily surrendered by the institutions after they were shown evidence that the works were stolen by the Nazis.
The restitution announcement was made on Wednesday by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Ivan J. Arvelo, a special agent in charge at a branch of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The effort by Timothy Reif and David Frankel — heirs and co-executors of the Grünbaum estate — to reacquire the Schiele paintings has lasted more than 25 years and has been marked by legal battles due both to statutes of limitations and disputed claims. One claim alleged that the paintings were never stolen, and were instead in the custody of a relative of the Grünbaum family for the duration of the war, until they were sold to art collectors.
Last week, three other Schiele works believed to have come from the Grünbaum collection were seized by Bragg’s office from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio.
Schiele’s work was popular among Jewish art collectors, and was considered “degenerate” art, along with a wide range of other modernist works, by the Nazis. In October 2022, two of Schiele’s paintings, previously in Grünbaum’s collection, were auctioned for charity by Grünbaum’s descendants through Christie’s to support up-and-coming performing artists from underrepresented backgrounds.
As a cabaret artist, Grünbaum performed as a master of ceremonies and wrote operettas and songs. He was also known for his political activity: In 1910, when an Austrian officer made antisemitic remarks, Grünbaum slapped him and was challenged to a duel in which he was injured. In the 1930s, Grünbaum became a vocal critic of the Nazis both in his performances and in a weekly column for a Viennese daily newspaper.
In 1938, Grünbaum and his wife Elisabeth were arrested by the Nazis and he was forced to sign a document giving her power of attorney. Elisabeth was then forced to sign a paper claiming she voluntarily turned over her husband’s art collection to the Nazis. Grünbaum gave his last performance at the Dachau infirmary on Dec. 31, 1940. He died of tuberculosis two weeks later. Elisabeth is presumed to have died at the Maly Trostenets concentration camp near Minsk in 1942.
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The post 7 Egon Schiele portraits to be returned to heirs of Jewish cabaret star murdered in the Holocaust appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Four More Sentenced to Jail for Amsterdam Attack Against Israeli Soccer Fans
Israeli soccer fans under assault, near Amsterdam Central station, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 8, 2024, in this still image obtained from a social media video. X/iAnnet/via REUTERS
An Amsterdam court announced at a public hearing on Wednesday jail sentences, ranging from 11 days to three months, for four more perpetrators of the violent attack against Israeli soccer fans that took place in the streets of the Dutch capital last year.
The lengthiest sentence of three months, with the deduction of pre-trial detention, was given to a 27-year-old man who incited violence against Maccabi Tel Aviv fans on Nov. 7, 2024, with messages posted in a WhatsApp group chat that had thousands of members. He wrote “Dead Jew better than a living Jew” and messages about “Dirty cancer Jews.”
The court shared several other of his offensive messages, one of which included an image of Holocaust victim Anne Frank alongside the text “slaughter gas is for losers. I use Zyklon B,” referring to the deadly gas used in gas chambers at Nazi concentration camps. He had also shared an image of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler with the text “pull up pull up gas,” a drawing of Hitler with a swastika, and the message “Hamas Hamas all Jews on the gas.”
The 27-year-old also insulted Jews, made comments trivializing the Holocaust, and shared locations of “those Jews” so they would be attacked during the “Jew hunting” rampage that took place on Nov. 7. He even provided a time and location for attackers to gather and coordinate their assault, which took place in Amsterdam after Maccabi Tel Aviv competed against the Dutch team Ajax in a UEFA Europa League match. The court said he confessed to assisting in the violence carried out by dozens of anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian gangs.
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were chased by assailants carrying knives and sticks, run over by cars, physically assaulted, and some were forced by their attackers to say “Free Palestine.” Amsterdam’s mayor called the attackers “antisemitic hit-and-run squads.”
A 32-year-old man, who founded the WhatsApp group where the attack was planned and promoted, was sentenced on Wednesday to six weeks in prison, minus the 26 days because of his pre-trial detention. He told attackers on the night of the premeditated and coordinated onslaught where and how they could escape police arrest, and where they could find Israelis to victimize.
A 22-year-old man was given one month in prison, with deduction for his pre-trial detention, for assisting in the violence. He shared on the WhatsApp group chat the location of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters and urged attackers to spread out in different locations around Amsterdam. The Public Prosecutor’s Office had demanded 12 months in prison for him, but the court ruled there was not sufficient evidence that he personally assaulted Israeli soccer fans.
The fourth suspect sentenced on Wednesday, a 26-year-old, chased a Maccabi Tel Aviv supporter and physically beat the victim with his belt. He also has a criminal record with previous violent crimes. However, he does not need to do any jail time for his actions. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 30 days in prison, of which 19 days is suspended. Eleven days remain in his sentence, but because that is equivalent to his pre-trial detention, he does not need to spend any time in prison. He was also given a two-year probation period for public assault. On Tuesday night, the night before his sentencing, he was seen at an anti-Israel demonstration in Amsterdam Central Station, according to Dutch media.
Sentencing for the attack began in December 2024, when an Amsterdam court ruled five men would face penalties ranging from six months to one month in prison, and a work sentence of 100 hours. In total, nine people have now been prosecuted for the violence. Amsterdam police said they have 122 suspects in the case.
The Lawfare Project, an international Jewish civil rights organization legally representing more than 50 victims of the attack, previously lambasted the Dutch court for what they described as “light sentences” for the assailants.
The post Four More Sentenced to Jail for Amsterdam Attack Against Israeli Soccer Fans first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Calls for Global Siege on US, Israeli Embassies After Renewed Strikes in Gaza
Illustrative: Pro-Hamas demonstrators gather in the heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park in New York City on Feb. 18, 2o25. Photo: Screenshot
Hamas has called for “mass demonstrations and a global siege on Israeli and American embassies around the globe,” according to Iranian state-run media, following Israel’s decision to resume military operations against the Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza after negotiations to extend a ceasefire failed.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Hamas urged the “Arabic and Islamic world” and “free people everywhere” to mobilize against “the Israeli regime’s resuming its US-backed war of genocide against the Palestinian territory.”
The group called for immediate pressure on both Israel and the United States “to end the ongoing military onslaught,” in Gaza, according to Iran’s Press TV.
“The fascist occupation government has resumed its barbaric aggression and genocide war against our people in Gaza, violating all human norms, values, and divine laws during the holy month of Ramadan,” the statement reads”
Iran is Hamas’s chief international backer, providing the Palestinian terrorist group with weapons, funding, and training.
Israel on Monday night began conducting “extensive” strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza, before resuming ground operations in the coastal enclave on Wednesday.
“This follows Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals it has received from US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement. “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength.”
In its own statement, Hamas called for mass demonstrations in cities worldwide and a coordinated siege of Israeli and American diplomatic missions “in response to the Israeli government’s resumption of its military aggression and its reversal of the ceasefire agreement, which has flouted all international and humanitarian laws and norms.”
The Palestinian Islamist group also urged demonstrators to raise Palestinian flags and mobilize resources in support of “the legitimate rights of Palestinians to freedom, independence, and an end to a simultaneous stifling blockade that the regime was enforcing against the coastal strip.”
“Let us unite all efforts at the Arab, Islamic, and international levels and be one voice against the Zionist aggression and the genocide war it is waging against more than two million Palestinians,” the statement read.
Israel recently imposed a total blockade on Gaza after the first phase of the ceasefire with Hamas expired without an agreement to extend the truce.
During the first phase, which began on Jan. 19, fighting ceased for six weeks as Hamas released 33 Israeli hostages (25 alive and eight deceased) in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom had been serving long sentences in Israeli prisons for terrorist activities.
The second phase was meant to include a complete Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza and the release of the remaining hostages taken by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists from Israel. However, negotiations faltered when Hamas rejected a US proposal, supported by Israel, to release additional hostages and extend the ceasefire while continuing to discuss a permanent resolution.
The US, Qatar, and Egypt have been trying to bridge the differences between the Islamic terrorist group and Israel to restart negotiations in order to release remaining hostages held in Gaza and lift the blockade.
On Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Jerusalem will not cease military operations against Hamas until all the hostages are returned.
“Hamas must realize that the rules of the game have changed, and if it does not immediately release all the hostages, the gates of hell will open, and it will find itself facing the full intensity of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] in the air, sea, and land, until its complete elimination,” Katz said during a visit to the Tel Nof Airbase.
“We will not stop fighting until all the hostages are returned home and all threats to the southern residents are removed,” he added.
The post Hamas Calls for Global Siege on US, Israeli Embassies After Renewed Strikes in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Says It Will Consider ‘Opportunities’ as Well as Threats in Trump Letter
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on before a meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran will consider the “opportunities” as well as the threats in a letter from US President Donald Trump that urged it to reach a new nuclear deal, and will soon respond, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday.
Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected Trump‘s letter last week as deceptive, saying Trump‘s excessive demands would “tighten the knot of sanctions and increase pressure on Iran.”
But Araqchi said Tehran was still evaluating the letter and weighing its reply.
“Trump’s letter was more a threat, but it claims to have opportunities. We paid attention to all points held in the letter and will consider both threat and opportunity in our response,” Araqchi said.
“There is an opportunity behind every menace.”
On Wednesday, Axios reported that Trump‘s letter gave Iran a two-month deadline to reach a nuclear deal or face stricter sanctions under the US President’s renewed “maximum pressure” campaign.
Araqchi said Tehran would respond to Trump‘s letter in the coming days via appropriate channels, rejecting any direct negotiations as long as Washington levels “pressure, threats, and sanctions.”
In his first term, Trump withdrew the US from a 2015 deal between Iran and major powers that had placed temporary limits on Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
After Trump pulled out in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, Iran breached and far surpassed those limits in the development of its nuclear program.
Western powers accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons by enriching uranium up to 60 percent purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian program.
Tehran says the development of its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and that it respects its commitments under international law.
The post Iran Says It Will Consider ‘Opportunities’ as Well as Threats in Trump Letter first appeared on Algemeiner.com.