Monumental NYC ruling on Nazi-looted art tied to inspiration for Joel Grey character in Cabaret

The Art Institute of Chicago has likely spent more than a million dollars trying to keep its claws on a Nazi-looted drawing in a Manhattan case shaping up to be “monumental” in the history of stolen works.The school’s legal challenge to halt Manhattan prosecutors’ pursuit of the swiped art backfired last month, when a judge effectively ruled the district attorney’s office could hunt down such looted treasures if they ever pass through New York City — regardless of their current location.Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Althea Drysdale’s scathing decision against the art Institute came as the establishment has been fighting to keep a drawing by expressionist Egon Schiele titled “Russian War Prisoner” — likely spending well more in the legal battle than the work’s value.Her decision found that Nazi officials stole the work from the Viennese Jewish cabaret performer and art collector Fritz Grünbaum years before he was murdered in the Holocaust.Grünbaum served as an inspiration for Joel Grey’s character in Hollywood’s Oscar-winning classic “Cabaret.”The institute did not do its due diligence in determining the work’s history of ownership, the judge said.“This Court cannot conclude that Respondent’s inquiries into the provenance of Russian War Prisoner were reasonable,” Drysdale wrote in her decision.But critically, the ruling also found that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has jurisdiction to recover the art from Chicago because the work was purchased and displayed by a Manhattan gallery in 1956.The DA’s office has not traditionally had to go this far in the courts to retrieve such a work.Raymond Dowd, a lawyer and stolen-art expert who is working to return the stolen Grünbaum collection to the collector’s descendants, called the judge’s decision “extraordinary.“[Drysdale’s] decision is monumental for the world because it says if it passes through New York City, the court will retain jurisdiction, no matter where it goes,” D...