Wednesday GUEST Blog

7-18-12 steamy brain

Give Me More, Art n’ Music

Geez, I missed out on the monsoon rain ‘n wind event at Winestock ’12. I arrived at 4:30 after attending the wedding shower of Jeffery n’ Alicia. Two University of Iowa Medical Doctors that are related to Drakesmart buddies Megan n’ Jordan.  Check out their cool wedding site. http://tiny.cc/skiihw”.  That’s the reason for the delay in getting out to Winestock.

By the time I got there, the major rain storm had passed. Other than raining on Judy’s parade, the temperature dropped from 95 to 70 in 30 minutes.

By 6 pm, the sun was out and the last two bands were ready to jam, Matt Woods n’ the Thunderbolts and then Roxi Copland. I’ve been wanting to see her for a while. The Peace sisters had a lot of fun and this picture should have you wondering. I’m going to buy me one of these next week.

Back to Art, the Art Center showed a movie on Sunday “Portrait of Wally” pronounced “valley”. A very interesting documentary of a 1912 painting by Egon Schiele’that was owned by Lea Bondi (Jewish). During WWII, the painting was stolen and after the war, never returned to Lea Bondi.  She spent years and years trying to get the painting from Austria (Leopold Museum of Art). Then in 1998, the painting made it to MoMA and the Bond’s family began their efforts to claim the paining. The story is fascinating, taking 12 years to resolve. If the painting had not made it to MoMA (NYC), there would of never been a resolution to this case.

The Case: The United States of America, the Estate of Lea Bondi Jaray and the Leopold Museum,  Settle the Long-Standing Case Involving “Portrait of Wally” by Egon Schiele

New York, NY (July 20, 2010) -- The Estate of Lea Bondi Jaray (the “Estate”) announced today that the United States Government, the Estate and the Leopold Museum Privat-Stiftung (the “Leopold Museum”) have agreed to settle the long-pending case of United States of America v. Portrait of Wally, which was about to go to trial before Chief Judge Loretta Preska in federal court in Manhattan on July 26, 2010.

The case involves Portrait of Wally, a painting by Egon Schiele (the “Painting”), stolen from a Jewish art dealer and collector by a Nazi agent in the late 1930’s in Vienna. The major terms of the settlement agreement, which has been approved by Judge Preska, are as follows:

(a) the Leopold Museum pays the Estate $19 Million;
(b) the Estate releases its claim to the Painting;
(c) the United States Government dismisses the civil forfeiture action it brought against the Leopold Museum and releases the Painting to the Leopold Museum;
(d) the Leopold Museum will permanently display signage next to the Painting at the Leopold Museum, and at all future displays of the Painting of any kind that the Leopold Museum authorizes or allows anywhere in the world, that sets forth the true provenance of the Painting, including Lea Bondi Jaray’s prior ownership of the Painting and its theft from her by a Nazi agent before she fled to London in 1939; and

(e) before it is transported to the Leopold Museum in Vienna, the Painting will be publicly exhibited at the Museum of Jewish Heritage -- A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, in New York, beginning with a ceremony commemorating the legacy of Lea Bondi Jaray and the successful resolution of the lawsuit.

The Painting was the personal property of Lea Bondi Jaray, a Jewish art dealer in Vienna, who fled in 1939 to London, where she died in 1969. The Painting became the subject of court proceedings in New York City, after it was loaned in late 1997 and early 1998 to the Museum of Modern Art in New York by the Leopold Museum as part of an exhibition of Schieles from the Leopold Museum’s collection. In 1998, Robert Morgenthau, Manhattan District Attorney, subpeonaed the Painting in connection with his investigation into whether the Painting was stolen property. After the State Court of Appeals ruled in 1999 that such “seizure” of an artwork loaned for exhibition was prohibited under New York State law, the United States Government immediately commenced a civil forfeiture action in New York, alleging that the Painting was stolen from Lea Bondi Jaray during the Nazi era by a Nazi named Friedrich Welz, and was imported into the United States in 1997 by the Leopold Museum in violation of U.S. law. The Customs Service seized the Painting in connection with that action. The Estate of Lea Bondi Jaray asserted a claim to the Painting in the action, and the U.S. agreed that upon forfeiture of the Painting, it would transfer to the Estate all right and title to the Painting.

Based on the evidence presented during the case, Judge Preska ruled last fall that the Painting was the personal property of Lea Bondi Jaray and that it was stolen from her in Vienna in the late 1930's by Friedrich Welz, who was a member and collaborator of the Nazi party. The Court found that the Painting had been seized from Welz by U.S. Forces in Austria after World War II and delivered in 1947 to the Austrian Federal Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments (the “Bundesdenkmalamt”), along with paintings Welz had acquired from Dr. Heinrich Rieger, a Jewish art collector who had perished during the Holocaust. In 1950, the Bundesdenkmalamt delivered artworks to an agent for the Rieger heirs and included the Painting in the delivery. Later that year, the Rieger heirs sold their works to the Austrian National Gallery (the “Belvedere”), and the Painting was included in the delivery of the artworks to the Belvedere. In 1954, the Belvedere traded the )ainting to Dr. Rudolf Leopold. In 1994, Dr. Leopold transferred the Painting to the Leopold Museum. (from The Art Law Group of Herrick).

Here is a picture of Wally. Yes, art n’ music, my summertime tagline. Gotta Run

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That Girl, Ann Marie