A drawing by Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele became on Friday the 11th artwork returned to the family of Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian-Jewish cabaret performer whose art collection was stolen by the Nazis before he was killed in a concentration camp during the Holocaust.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and US Special Agent in Charge Ivan J. Arvelo of Homeland Security Investigations announced in New York City on Friday the return of “Seated Nude Woman, front view” by Schiele. The drawing was seized by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office earlier this year from the estate of Gustav “Gus” Papanek. The artwork from 1918 is believed to depict Schiele’s wife.

Ernst and Helene Papanek, Austrian Jews who fled Nazi persecution in 1938 and emigrated to the United States in 1940, purchased the artwork in 1961 not knowing that it had been stolen from Grünbaum. They gave the drawing as a gift to their son, Gus, in 1969 and it remained in his estate until the latter’s death in 2022. The Papanek family fully cooperated with the District Attorney’s office to return the drawing, and it was given to the Grünbaum family at a ceremony on Friday in New York that was attended by members of both families.

“We believe that returning the drawing is the right thing to do,” said the Papanek family. “The experience of the two families serves as yet another reminder of the evil and brutality of the Nazi regime.”

“The recovery of this important artwork — stolen from a prominent Jewish critic of Adolf Hitler — sends a message to the world that crime does not pay and that the law enforcement community in New York has not forgotten the dark lessons of World War II,” said Timothy Reif, Grünbaum’s relative.

Grünbaum was a writer, director, comedian, and film and radio star in Austria whose art collection comprised of hundreds of pieces, including more than 80 works by Schiele. He was arrested by the Nazis in 1938 after their annexation of Austria and forced to give his wife power of attorney. She was later coerced to hand over her husband’s entire art collection to Nazi officials. Many of the confiscated works were auctioned or sold abroad to finance the Nazi Party. Grünbaum died in the Dachau concentration camp in Germany in 1941, and his wife was killed a year later in another Nazi concentration camp.

In September 2023, the District Attorney’s Office returned seven Schiele artworks to Grünbaum heirs from the Museum of Modern Art; The Ronald Lauder Collection; The Morgan Library; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art; and the Vally Sabarsky Trust in Manhattan. Another artwork was returned voluntarily by the collector Michael Lesh directly to Grünbaum’s family in October 2023, and in January 2024, two more artworks were returned — from the Allen Museum of Art at Oberlin College and the Carnegie Museum of Art.

The Schiele drawing “Russian War Prisoner” remains seized in place at the Art Institute of Chicago, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

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Former US President Donald Trump touted his close relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu when he hosted the Israeli prime minister on Friday and accused US Vice President Kamala Harris of making “disrespectful” comments about the Gaza war.

Netanyahu met Trump, the Republican nominee in the 2024 US presidential race, a day after talks with Democratic President Joe Biden and Harris, who is running against Trump in the Nov. 5 US election.

Trump greeted Netanyahu and his wife Sara at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, and criticized Harris, who had voiced concern after meeting the Israeli leader about the toll on Palestinian civilians from Israel‘s nine-month-old campaign in Gaza.

“I think her remarks were disrespectful,” Trump said.

Netanyahu said he hoped his US trip would lead to a quicker ceasefire deal.

“I hope so. But I think time will tell,” he told reporters. He said he thought there had been movement in efforts to forge a ceasefire because of Israeli military pressure and said he would dispatch a team to talks in Rome.

Netanyahu had angered Trump when he congratulated Biden on his victory over Trump in the 2020 election. Trump falsely claims the election was stolen from him by voter fraud.

Trump more recently criticized Netanyahu for Israeli security failures that enabled Hamas to carry out the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the Israeli offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Trump dismissed any suggestion of tensions with Netanyahu.

“We have a very good relationship,” he said, noting policy changes during his presidency including moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and pulling the United States out of the international nuclear deal with Iran.

Opinion polls put Harris and Trump in a close race for the White House, prompting world leaders like Netanyahu, traditionally more aligned with Trump’s Republicans than Biden’s Democrats, to strike a balance in dealings with the US.

HUMANITARIAN SITUATION A ‘SERIOUS CONCERN,’ HARRIS SAYS

Harris had pressed Netanyahu on the suffering of Palestinians in the enclave in talks on Thursday that were watched for signs of how she might shift American policy if she becomes president.

“I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there,” Harris said. “I will not be silent.”

“Israel has a right to defend itself. And how it does so matters,” she said.

Members of Netanyahu’s delegation were disappointed by some of Harris’ remarks in private and in public out of concern that it showed “daylight” between the governments and could signal how relations would develop if she wins the presidency, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Netanyahu heads a right-leaning coalition government opposed to Palestinian statehood in the current security environment, a policy at odds with US support for a two-state solution to ending decades of conflict.

In defiant remarks to Congress on Wednesday, Netanyahu defended Israel‘s military and dismissed criticism of its campaign in Gaza.

Dozens of Democrats boycotted Netanyahu’s speech, voicing dismay over the thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza, destruction of its infrastructure, and displacement of most of its population

In Wednesday’s speech, Netanyahu praised Biden’s support for Israel.

But to cheers from Republicans, he touched on Trump’s pro-Israel record as president. He praised Trump’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a long-held goal of pro-Israel lawmakers.

He also cited the Abraham Accords, landmark US-brokered agreements signed during Trump’s White House years that normalized bilateral relations between Israel and four Arab countries.

Hamas and its allies killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostage in the Oct. 7 attack. Some 115 hostages are still being held though Israel believes one in three are dead.

Israeli officials estimate that some 14,000 fighters from terrorist groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been killed or taken prisoner out of a force they estimated to number more than 25,000 at the start of the war.

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Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that the sabotage of France’s high-speed rail network ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics was directed by “Iran’s axis of evil and radical Islam.”

The charge came one day after Katz warned his French counterpart of an Iranian-backed terrorist plot to attack Israelis at the Olympics.

France’s rail infrastructure was hit on Friday with widespread acts of vandalism including arson attacks, paralyzing travel to Paris from the rest of France and Europe just hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympics. French authorities described the acts as “criminal” and “malicious.”

Katz took to X/Twitter to claim that Iran was behind the apparently coordinated attacks and called on the world to stand up to the Islamist regime, which Western intelligence agencies have for years labeled as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism.

“The sabotage of railway infrastructure across France ahead of the [2024 Paris] Olympics was planned and executed under the influence of Iran’s axis of evil and radical Islam,” Katz wrote. “As I warned my French counterpart [Stéphane Séjourné] this week, based on information held by Israel, Iranians are planning terrorist attacks against the Israeli delegation and all Olympic participants. Increased preventive measures must be taken to thwart their plot. The free world must stop Iran now — before it’s too late.”

Katz was referring to a letter he sent on Thursday to Séjourné raising alarm bells about what he described as a plan by Iran to attack Israel’s Olympic delegation.

“We currently have assessments regarding the potential threat posed by Iranian terrorist proxies and other terrorist organizations who aim to carry out attacks against members of the Israeli delegation and Israeli tourists during the Olympics,” Katz wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Algemeiner. “This concern underscores the important of our shared commitment to ensuring the safety and security of all participants.”

France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and National Police both announced previously that they are taking increased security measures to ensure the safety of Israel’s Olympic delegation while they are in Paris. These measures include providing them with round the clock security from French police. The Israeli delegation will also receive additional security details from Israel’s Shin Bet security agency during the Olympics, which begin Friday night with the opening ceremony.

In his letter, Katz expressed “deep gratitude” to the French government for the “unprecedented security measures” it is taking to protect the Israeli Olympic delegation and Israeli tourists visiting Paris for the Games. He also thanked Séjourné and French President Emmanuel Macron for their “unequivocal condemnation of the incitement against Israeli athletes recently voiced in Paris.”

Macron said during an interview with a French radio station on Tuesday that Israeli athletes are “welcome” in France for the Paris Olympics, and that “it is France’s responsibility to guarantee their security.” He also rejected calls to ban Israel from the Olympics. “I condemn in the strongest possible way all those who create risks for these athletes and implicitly threaten them,” he added.

Séjourné made similar remarks on Monday.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry this week condemned Israel’s participation in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and demanded that Israeli athletes be banned from them because of the Jewish state’s ongoing war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

“Announcing the reception & protection of the Apartheid & terrorist Zionist regime’s convoy only means giving legitimacy to the child killers. They do not deserve to be present at the Paris Olympics because of the war against the innocent people of #Gaza,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on X/Twitter. The ministry also shared a picture of the five Olympic rings, some of which bear images of wounded children. The middle ring is on fire and features an image of Israels national flag.

Katz concluded his letter by saying he his “deeply grateful” to the French Foreign Ministry for offering to host in Paris a memorial ceremony for the 11 Israelis murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September.

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