Object Information

In March 2007, the Museum of Fine Arts received a restitution claim for Oskar Kokoschka’s Two Nudes (Lovers) (accession no. 1973.196). Claudia Seger-Thomschitz, represented as the sole and unrelated heir of the last surviving son of Oskar Reichel, the painting’s former owner, asserted that Reichel was forced to sell Two Nudes (Lovers) under duress in Nazi-occupied Austria in 1939; later, her counsel asserted that the painting had been confiscated from Reichel by the Nazis. Upon receipt of the claim, the MFA conducted a comprehensive investigation of the painting’s provenance and concluded that it has legal title to the work. The MFA shared with the claimant’s counsel the results of its research. When the claim was not withdrawn, the Museum filed suit in January 2008 to confirm its ownership of the painting. In May 2009, U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel ruled that the MFA is entitled to retain ownership of Two Nudes (Lovers); the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this decision in October 2010. A brief summary of the research is presented here. Oskar Reichel (b. 1869 – d. 1943) of Vienna, who was Jewish, was a prominent collector of Austrian Expressionist art. He patronized contemporary artists, including Egon Schiele, Max Oppenheimer, and Oskar Kokoschka. Reichel actively bought and sold their work, playing an important role on the Viennese art market. He probably bought Two Nudes (Lovers) directly from Kokoschka around 1914 or 1915, shortly after it was painted. By 1924, Reichel had developed a business relationship with Otto Kallir (b. 1894 - d. 1978), a Jewish art dealer who opened the Neue Galerie in Vienna in 1923. Reichel consigned Two Nudes (Lovers), along with other paintings by Kokoschka, for sale through Kallir in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1938, Kallir fled Vienna and turned the Neue Galerie over to his non-Jewish secretary. He opened a new gallery, the Galerie St. Etienne, in Paris. In February 1939, Reichel transferred ownership of five Kokoschka paintings—including Two Nudes (Lovers)—to Kallir, who exhibited them in his Paris gallery that spring. Later that year, Kallir emigrated to New York and opened a branch of the Galerie St. Etienne there. He exhibited Two Nudes (Lovers) frequently between 1940 and 1945, both in his New York gallery and in traveling exhibitions throughout the United States. From New York, Kallir sent money for the five Kokoschka paintings to Oskar Reichel’s two sons, Raimund and Hans, with whom he was in communication; they were living in South America and the United States, respectively. Although Raimund and Hans had been able to leave Austria, Oskar Reichel and his wife Malvine remained in Vienna. Their home furnishings company was forcibly closed after the anti-Jewish riots of Kristallnacht in 1938, and in 1941 they were forced to sell their shares in a family-owned building, with the proceeds going into blocked accounts. Their oldest son, Max, who was mentally ill, was deported and killed. In 1943, Oskar passed away from natural causes and Malvine Reichel was sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. She survived and joined her son Hans in the United States after the war. Malvine Reichel made successful restitution claims for certain assets lost in Austria, including the property sold in 1941. She relinquished her claim to other assets, including the family home, which she had sold to acquaintances in 1938. Raimund Reichel applied for and received compensation from the Austrian authorities for damages due to Nazi persecution. In his application, he referred specifically to paintings by Anton Romako that his father had sold under duress. However, no claim was ever made for any of the five Kokoschka paintings, nor was any indication made that members of the Reichel family considered the 1939 transaction to be invalid. In 1945, Kallir sold Two Nudes (Lovers) on the New York art market. Around 1948 it was acquired by Sarah Reed Blodgett (later Platt), who bequeathed it to the MFA in 1973. Since that time, the painting has been exhibited and published extensively. It is currently on view in the Rabb Gallery at the MFA.