Morgenthau, Bragg & A Manhattan Nazi Art Heist Saga

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg obtained search warrants allowing for the seizure of three artworks by the late Austrian artist, Egon Schiele.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg obtained search warrants allowing for the seizure of three artworks by the late Austrian artist, Egon Schiele. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
September 27, 2023

It has been a momentous month for the world of high-dollar artworks, the billionaires who trade in them, and the powerful and wealthy art institutions who are sometimes complicit in their wrongful acquisition. Two weeks ago, I broke the news that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had obtained search warrants allowing for the seizure of three artworks by the late Austrian artist, Egon Schiele, which had originally been stolen from their murdered owners by the Nazis during World War II: Girl with Black Hair, which had been on display at the Allen Memorial Art Museum, at Oberlin College; Russian War Prisoner, at the Art Institute of Chicago; and Portrait of a Man, at the Carnegie Museum of Art, in Pittsburgh.