Oscar Reichel (1869 – 7 May 1943) was an Austrian physician and art collector. His work was confiscated by the Nazis during World War II, leading to claims from his descendants to restore it to them.

Early life

Reichel was born in 1869 in Vienna.

Art collector

Reichel was a prominent collector of Austrian Expressionist art, including

Egon Schiele Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele (; 12 June 1890 – 31 October 1918) was an Austrian Expressionist painters, painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude sel ...

, Max Oppenheimer, and

Oskar Kokoschka Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright and teacher, best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Expre ...

. Reichel collected many artworks by Schiele and Kokoschka. Schiele painted a portrait of Reichel in 1910 as well as a black crayon drawing "Portrait Study of Dr. Oskar Reichel with Raised Left Hand" Other Schiele artworks owned by Reichel included "The Self-Seers" and Black Girl ( Girl in Black). Art by Kokoschka included "Two Nudes" and Susanne (1916)

Persecution by the Nazis

When the Nazi persecution of Vienna's Jews began, with the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

on 12 March 1938, Reichel and his wife Malvine remained in Vienna. Their home furnishings business was forced shut after the anti-Jewish attacks of

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

in 1938, and in 1941 the Nazis forced them to sell their shares in a family-owned building, with the proceeds going into blocked accounts that they could not access. The Reichel's eldest son, Maximilian Reichel, born in 1900, was deported in a Transport from Poland to Lodz and murdered by the Nazis in 1942. On 7 May 1943, Oskar died. His widow, Malvine Reichel, was deported with Transport 46c from Vienna, Austria to

Theresienstadt Ghetto Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination c ...

, in Czechoslovakia on 11 January 1943. Reichel’s two sons, Raimund and Hans fled to South America and the United States, respectively. Their mother, Malvine, survived

Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination c ...

and joined her son Hans in the United States after the war.

Claims for restitution

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

In March 2007, Claudia Seger-Thomschitz, an heir to Jewish art collector Reichel, requested that the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

restitute ''Two Nudes'', a 1913 painting

that Reichel had owned prior to the Nazi

. She claimed that Reichel had sold the painting under duress in Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1939. The MFA responded that Reichel sold the painting voluntarily and "filed suit against her in January in US District Court for the District of Massachusetts to establish legal title to the painting," creating consternation among

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

experts.

Reichel's business and home were confiscated during World War II, and one of his sons was sent to a concentration camp, where he died. Reichel's wife was deported to a camp, but survived. "To suggest, at that period in Vienna, that there was no pressure is ridiculous," said professor Deborah E. Lipstadt, a Holocaust historian and former director of the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University. "It's ludicrous."

The case was dismissed by the US court of Appeals which ruled that the claim was "time-barred".

Sara Dunbar

In 2009, a restitution claim against Sarah Dunbar for the painting “Portrait of a Youth”, by Oskar Kokoschka, which Reichel had sold to art dealer Otto Kallir in Vienna in 1939 was also unsuccessful. The subject of the painting was Hans Reichel, son of Oskar Reichel. Dunbar’s lawyers, Thaddeus Stauber and Jennifer Borum Bechet, argued that "although the Reichel family had long ago sought reparations for property that was stolen by the Nazis, they never sought the return of the Hans portrait." The court ruled in Dunbar's favor and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision, stating that, under Louisiana law, Dunbar is the clear owner of the Kokoschka by “acquisitive prescription,” because she openly held the painting for 10 years.

Albertina Museum in Austria

In 2011, Austrian culture ministry's art restitution council told Vienna's

Albertina The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well ...

art gallery to return six works by Anton Romako to Reichel's descendants on the grounds that his collection was lost due to persecution by the Nazis. The artworks included ''The Spring, Nike with Wreath'' and ''Young Girl, Nude''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reichel, Oskar Jewish art collectors Austrian art collectors 1869 births 1943 deaths Austrian Jews who died in the Holocaust Subjects of Nazi art appropriations Physicians from Austria-Hungary