Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Forum Topic: George Grosz Estate Sues MoMa Over Disputed Paintings

Forum Topic: The estate of George Grosz has filed a lawsuit against the Museum of Modern Art due to MoMA’s refusal to return three works of art to the Grosz estate.

The estate claims that MoMA acquired two paintings and a watercolor by Grosz which the artist had left behind after having fled from Nazi Germany in 1933. Apparently an art dealer sold the works to MoMA in 1952. However, the Grosz estate claims that they are the rightful owners and that the art dealer had no rights to the work.

The estate feels that the works had been stolen. So far MoMA has not responded. In your opinion, who is in right here? Should the estate have control over the works or should MoMA be considered the rightful owners?

www.myartspace.com/forum

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why did the estate wait until now to complain? Were the works recently valued high or what?

Donald Frazell said...

Grosz worked at the Arts Student League in NYC til 1955, I think he may have known if MoMA had bought some of his works. Need more info to say however.