In 1940, Nazis seized a 3-inch painting from a Jewish collector in Vienna; 86 years later, Austria returned it to his heir in Minnesota

An 1847 painting made by a not-so-popular artist wouldn’t have much historical or monetary value for most. But to Jackie Sondell, whose three grandparents died in the Holocaust, it’s a priceless family heirloom. The Austrian deputy consul general in the Twin Cities, from his posting in New York, lifted the top off a cardboard box and pulled out a tiny piece of art. The 1847 watercolour miniature, about 3 inches tall and 2 inches wide, showed a nobleman who was an officer in the Austrian Empire’s army and was stolen from the house 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 much famed in history. For years, the miniature had been overlooked at the Museum of Military History in Vienna. Then, the Austrian diplomat handed over the painting to its rightful heir, Jackie Sondell, a retired real estate agent who lived in Wayzata. “I see it as a symbol of hope,” Sondell said.The Austrian government had tracked down the 77-year-old Sondell and her brother, Jeff Lieb, after officials learned the siblings were the heirs of Eduard Epstein. Epstein had been a successful Jewish merchant in the Viennese textile industry in the early 1900s and an enthusiastic art collector.But when the Nazis took control of Austria in 1938, Epstein’s circumstances changed dramatically. His company was liquidated, and his valuables including jewellery, coin collections, and silver were requisitioned. When he tried to sell his art collection to fund an escape from the widening terror of the Nazis, he was caught and sent to prison for 10 months. He finally managed to flee to America in 1941 with his wife and daughter. Weakened by prison, he died two years later at 62. Epstein’s family never saw his art collection again, lost to the Nazis and to history.

Return to the heirs

It was in 2013, when the miniature watercolour of the Austrian nobleman was identified in the Vienna military museum. It was submitted to an art restitution board, part of a broad effort across Austria in recent decades to return art stolen by the Nazis.Tracking down heirs to a painting stolen nearly a century ago can be difficult, explained the Austrian diplomat, Johannes Gassner. But last year a government representative tracked down Sondell and told her about the painting. Growing up, Sondell and her brother were close to their Aunt Helen and Uncle Ernest. Helen was the only daughter of Epstein and his wife, Margarete. Helen was not Sondell’s blood relative, but had married into the family when she married Sondell’s Uncle Ernest. Since Helen and Ernest didn’t have children, they treated Sondell and her brother like their own, spoiling them with summer trips to the Adirondacks or adventures in New York City. When Helen died in 2000, Sondell and her brother became heirs to her estate.Sondell called Dorotheum, one of the world’s oldest auction houses in Vienna, to learn about the miniature’s history. Researchers told her Epstein had been arrested when he tried to sell the art, which the Nazis seized on March 28, 1940.“Austria took a while to accept responsibility for its role in the crimes and atrocities committed by the Nazi regime,” Gassner said. “Of course you cannot undo what happened, and you cannot restore the lives of all those who were murdered. But nevertheless today’s restitution is an important gesture in the context of Austria’s efforts to live up to its historical responsibility. It’s never too late to accept responsibility.”As the diplomat travelled to Minnesota to return the painting, Sondell felt emotional. She thought about how her aunt Helen would have felt if she were alive. And how the Holocaust formed a part in her family’s history, where she lost three grandparents to it: one in Dachau, two at the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland. “May their memories be a blessing,” Sondell said. Sondell’s mother escaped to London before making her way to the United States, but the Holocaust was never far from her mother’s mind.However belated it was for Austria to recognise its responsibility, Sondell appreciated it. She hopes the return of the painting highlights the individual Jewish lives brutally affected by the Holocaust. Six million Jews dead is a soul-numbing statistic, but Eduard Epstein’s story is a tragedy.“No matter what size the picture is, at least they are making the effort of returning it,” Sondell said. “You have to give somebody a second chance. If you stop and forgive, maybe the world will see things a different way. Maybe there is hope for peace in the world.”Interestingly, the miniature makes up just one piece of Epstein’s large art collection. The whereabouts of the rest of his art still remain unknown with no full accounting of what was stolen.