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11th Nazi-Looted Artwork Returned to Heirs of Jewish Cabaret Performer Killed in Holocaust
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.
The post 11th Nazi-Looted Artwork Returned to Heirs of Jewish Cabaret Performer Killed in Holocaust first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Lebanon Plans UN Complaint Against Israel Over Border Wall
A UN vehicle drives near a concrete wall along Lebanon’s southern border which, according to the Lebanese presidency, extends beyond the “Blue Line”, a U.N.-mapped line separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as seen from northern Israel, November 16, 2025. REUTERS/Shir Torem
Lebanon will file a complaint to the U.N. Security Council against Israel for constructing a concrete wall along Lebanon’s southern border that extends beyond the “Blue Line,” the Lebanese presidency said on Saturday.
The Blue Line is a U.N.-mapped line separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israeli forces withdrew to the Blue Line when they left south Lebanon in 2000.
A spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, said on Friday the wall has made more than 4,000 square meters (nearly an acre) of Lebanese territory inaccessible to the local population.
The Lebanese presidency echoed his remarks, saying in a statement that Israel’s ongoing construction constituted “a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 and an infringement on Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Dujarric said the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) had requested that the wall be removed.
An Israeli military spokesperson denied on Friday that the wall crossed the Blue Line.
“The wall is part of a broader IDF plan whose construction began in 2022,” the spokesperson said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
“Since the start of the war, and as part of lessons learned from it, the IDF has been advancing a series of measures, including reinforcing the physical barrier along the northern border.”
UNIFIL, established in 1978, operates between the Litani River in the north and the Blue Line in the south. The mission has more than 10,000 troops from 50 countries and about 800 civilian staff, according to its website.
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Iran Says US Is Not Ready for ‘Equal and Fair’ Nuclear Talks
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks during a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran, Iran, July 12, 2025. Photo: Hamid Forootan/Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Washington’s current approach toward Tehran does not indicate any readiness for “equal and fair negotiations,” Iran’s foreign minister said on Sunday, after US President Donald Trump hinted last week at potential discussions.
Following Israel’s attack on Iran in June, which was joined by U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, attempts at renewing dialogue on Tehran’s nuclear program have failed.
The United States, its European allies and Israel accuse Tehran of using its nuclear program as a veil for efforts to develop the capability to produce weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Tehran and Washington underwent five rounds of indirect nuclear talks prior to the 12-days-war, but faced obstacles such as the issue of domestic uranium enrichment, which the U.S. wants Iran to forego.
“The U.S. cannot expect to gain what it couldn’t in war through negotiations,” Abbas Araqchi said during a Tehran conference named “international law under assault.”
“Iran will always be prepared to engage in diplomacy, but not negotiations meant for dictation,” he added.
During the same conference, deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh accused Washington of pursuing its wartime goals with “negotiations as a show.”
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Israeli Government Decides ‘Independent’ Commission to Investigate Oct. 7 Failures
The Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – The Israeli government has approved the creation of an “independent” commission of inquiry to examine the failures that enabled the Hamas assault of October 7, 2023.
However, in a move sharply criticized by the opposition and contrary to the recommendation of the Supreme Court, the panel will not be a formal state commission of inquiry. Instead, its mandate, authorities, and scope will be determined directly by government ministers.
According to the decision, the commission will receive full investigative powers and must be composed in a way that ensures “the broadest possible public trust.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will form a special ministerial committee tasked with defining what the inquiry may investigate, the time periods to be reviewed, and the authority it will receive. The committee has 45 days to deliver its recommendations.
For the past year, the government has repeatedly resisted calls to establish a state commission, arguing at first that such a body could not operate during wartime. Later, some ministers accused Supreme Court President Isaac Amit of being incapable of appointing an impartial chairperson.
But on October 15, the High Court of Justice ruled that there was “no substantive argument” against forming a state commission, giving the government 30 days to respond.
Netanyahu maintains that responsibility for the October 7 failures lies primarily with Israel’s security agencies rather than with political leaders.
His critics accuse him of creating a weaker, government-controlled inquiry designed to limit scrutiny of his decisions, undermining the prospect of full accountability for the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.