Karl Grunwald ( him. Karl Grünwald ; 1899 - 1964 , Austria ) - Austrian collector of paintings, owner of the largest collection of impressionists .
| Karl Grunwald | |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | |
| Date of death | |
| Citizenship |  Austria |
Content
Biography
In 1938 , when the Nazis seized Austria , Karl Grunwald went to France and ventured to take out 50 of the most valuable paintings of his collection. The Nazis managed to arrest them at a warehouse in Strasbourg and were auctioned off in 1942 . After the war, Karl and his son — Frederick Grunewald — tried to find paintings scattered around the world, managed to buy something back and sue some of the museums.
The painting “Faded Sunflowers” by Egon Schiele (written in 1914) was sold by the author in 1917 to a collector in Vienna. A passionate admirer of art Schiele Karl Grunewald bought the painting and, having disappeared, only in 2005 returned to the descendants of the collector. [one]
History of the found picture
One wealthy Frenchman turned to Christie's experts Andreas Rambler and Tom Zeid with a request to examine his paintings. The experts, knowing that the owner of the paintings was not a collector, could not even imagine that there could be original masterpieces. “ We took one look at the picture and turned to each other shocked. We stood at the masterpiece Schiele. It was the rarest moment of magic. "- said shocked by what they saw the auction experts.
When the story was told to the Frenchman, he agreed to return the masterpiece to the descendants. Then the story of the picture is as follows: the heirs of Karl Grunwald put the painting up for auction in June 2006 . The painting was sold for 21.7 million dollars.