In seizure orders dated Tuesday, and seen by AFP, the Supreme Court of the State of New York considers that "there are reasonable grounds to believe" that these drawings of the Austrian expressionist artist "are stolen" and "illegally held".

"Russian Prisoner of War" (1916), a watercolor and pencil on paper worth $1.25 million, was seized at the Art Institute of Chicago; "Portrait of a Man" (1917), a pencil drawing on paper worth one million dollars, was seized at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, northeast) while "Girl with Black Hair" (1911), a watercolor and pencil on paper worth $1.5 million, was seized at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin University (northeast, Ohio).

The ordinances specify that works may remain "on site" for a period of 60 days.

The work "Russian Prisoner of War" "remains in our custody in the museum for the time being," the Chicago museum said. "We are convinced that we have legally acquired this work and that we legally possess it," the museum added, saying it wanted to defend itself in the context of "a civil dispute (opened) before a federal court".

The Carnegie Museums in Pittsburgh have said they want to cooperate with the authorities.

Killed at Dachau

Ownership of the works was claimed by the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian Jewish cabaret artist, great art collector and critic of the Nazi regime, killed in the Dachau concentration camp in 1941.

According to the New York Times, the ongoing investigation focuses on a dozen works by Egon Schiele looted by the Nazis.

Fritz Grünbaum's heirs have been taking legal action for years to recover works of art that belonged to him. They rely on the fact that he had signed an official document for the benefit of the Nazi regime in 1938, while he was a prisoner in the Dachau camp.

The American justice had ruled against them in 2005, considering that they acted too late, but they won on two works in 2018. Meanwhile, the US Congress had passed the 2016 "Hear" law extending the deadline for claiming the return of a work.

The subject remains topical in other countries. In France, parliament passed a framework law in July to facilitate the return by public collections of cultural property looted by Jews under Nazi Germany.

According to figures published at an international conference in Terezin, Czech Republic in 2009, about 100,000 out of 650,000 stolen works had still not been returned at the time.

© 2023 AFP