Kurt Grawi (born February 1, 1887, in Hannover; d. 1945 inSantiago, Chile)[1] was a German Jewish businessman and art collector who was persecuted by the Nazis.
Grawi was born in 1887, the child of Josef Grawi (b. October 18, 1851)[2] and Berta Grawi. He had three sisters: Margarete Then-Bergh; Dr. Erna Gertrud Grawi and Irma Neumann.
He married Else Emilie Katherina Grawi (b. September 5, 1894 in Germany; d. September 5, 1944 in Santiago, Chile).[3]
In 1928, Grawi purchased The Foxes by Franz Marc.[4]
After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Grawi was persecuted because he was Jewish. His business wasAryanized, that is, transferred in accordance with anti-semitic Nazi laws to non-Jewish owners, in 1935.[5] In 1938, onKristallnacht Grawi was arrested and imprisoned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He fled to Chile in 1939.[6]
In 2017, Grawi's family demanded the restitution of Marc's paintingThe Foxes (1913) from Düsseldorf's Kunstpalast.[4][7] After Grawi's arrest onKristallnacht and detention in theSachsenhausen concentration camp in 1938, he had fled Germany for Chile in 1939. The painting passed throughGalerie Nierendorf, and William and Charlotte Dieterle, according to the German Lost Art Foundation.[6] Sold in New York to fund Grawi's escape from Nazi Germany, the sale was considered to have been made under duress.[8] In 2021, the German Advisory Commission recommended that the city of Düsseldorf restitute the painting to Grawi's heirs[9][10] and the Düsseldorf City Council voted in a closed session to restitute the painting.[11]
In January 2022, after hesitations and delays[12] that attracted criticism, Düsseldorf restituted Marc's The Foxes ("Die Füchse") to the Grawi heirs.[13]
Kurt Grawi's arrest and imprisonment in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1938 meant that he subsequently had to flee Germany with his wife and stepchildren. In 1939, Grawi's wife, who was not Jewish, sold the Berlin properties that had been signed over to her and organized the family's emigration to Chile that same year.
The long-awaited ruling has significant implications: because the painting was sold in New York to fund Grawi's flight from Nazi Germany, the decision to restitute the work may set a precedent for future claims regarding cultural objects sold under duress beyond Europe's borders