An 1847 portray made by a not-so-popular artist would not have a lot historic or financial worth for many. However to Jackie Sondell, whose three grandparents died within the Holocaust, it is a priceless household heirloom. The Austrian deputy consul common within the Twin Cities, from his posting in New York, lifted the highest off a cardboard field and pulled out a tiny piece of artwork. The 1847 watercolour miniature, about 3 inches tall and a pair of inches vast, confirmed a nobleman who was an officer within the Austrian Empire’s military and was stolen from the home of Sondell’s relative Eduard Epstein in Vienna, Austria, by the Nazis, as per a report by The Minnesota Star Tribune.It was painted by Albert Theer, an Austrian painter not a lot famed in historical past. For years, the miniature had been ignored on the Museum of Army Historical past in Vienna. Then, the Austrian diplomat handed over the portray to its rightful inheritor, Jackie Sondell, a retired actual property agent who lived in Wayzata. “I see it as a logo of hope,” Sondell mentioned.The Austrian authorities had tracked down the 77-year-old Sondell and her brother, Jeff Lieb, after officers realized the siblings had been the heirs of Eduard Epstein. Epstein had been a profitable Jewish service provider within the Viennese textile trade within the early 1900s and an enthusiastic artwork collector.However when the Nazis took management of Austria in 1938, Epstein’s circumstances modified dramatically. His firm was liquidated, and his valuables together with jewelry, coin collections, and silver had been requisitioned. When he tried to promote his artwork assortment to fund an escape from the widening terror of the Nazis, he was caught and despatched to jail for 10 months. He lastly managed to flee to America in 1941 together with his spouse and daughter. Weakened by jail, he died two years later at 62. Epstein’s household by no means noticed his artwork assortment once more, misplaced to the Nazis and to historical past.
Return to the heirs
It was in 2013, when the miniature watercolour of the Austrian nobleman was recognized within the Vienna navy museum. It was submitted to an artwork restitution board, a part of a broad effort throughout Austria in current a long time to return artwork stolen by the Nazis.Monitoring down heirs to a portray stolen almost a century in the past could be tough, defined the Austrian diplomat, Johannes Gassner. However final 12 months a authorities consultant tracked down Sondell and advised her concerning the portray. Rising up, Sondell and her brother had been near their Aunt Helen and Uncle Ernest. Helen was the one daughter of Epstein and his spouse, Margarete. Helen was not Sondell’s blood relative, however had married into the household when she married Sondell’s Uncle Ernest. Since Helen and Ernest didn’t have youngsters, they handled Sondell and her brother like their very own, spoiling them with summer season journeys to the Adirondacks or adventures in New York Metropolis. When Helen died in 2000, Sondell and her brother grew to become heirs to her property.Sondell referred to as Dorotheum, one of many world’s oldest public sale homes in Vienna, to study concerning the miniature’s historical past. Researchers advised her Epstein had been arrested when he tried to promote the artwork, which the Nazis seized on March 28, 1940.“Austria took some time to just accept duty for its position within the crimes and atrocities dedicated by the Nazi regime,” Gassner mentioned. “In fact you can not undo what occurred, and you can not restore the lives of all those that had been murdered. However however right now’s restitution is a crucial gesture within the context of Austria’s efforts to reside as much as its historic duty. It’s by no means too late to just accept duty.”Because the diplomat travelled to Minnesota to return the portray, Sondell felt emotional. She considered how her aunt Helen would have felt if she had been alive. And the way the Holocaust shaped a component in her household’s historical past, the place she misplaced three grandparents to it: one in Dachau, two on the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland. “Might their reminiscences be a blessing,” Sondell mentioned. Sondell’s mom escaped to London earlier than making her solution to america, however the Holocaust was by no means removed from her mom’s thoughts.Nonetheless belated it was for Austria to recognise its duty, Sondell appreciated it. She hopes the return of the portray highlights the person Jewish lives brutally affected by the Holocaust. Six million Jews lifeless is a soul-numbing statistic, however Eduard Epstein’s story is a tragedy.“It doesn’t matter what measurement the image is, no less than they’re making the trouble of returning it,” Sondell mentioned. “It’s a must to give any person a second probability. In the event you cease and forgive, possibly the world will see issues a unique approach. Perhaps there may be hope for peace on the earth.”Curiously, the miniature makes up only one piece of Epstein’s massive artwork assortment. The whereabouts of the remainder of his artwork nonetheless stay unknown with no full accounting of what was stolen.
