A small 19th-century watercolour miniature, stolen from a Jewish collector in Vienna during the Nazi era, has been returned to his surviving heir in Minnesota. The artwork, a three-inch portrait of an Austrian military officer painted by Albert Theer in 1847, was formally handed over by an Austrian diplomat to Jackie Sondell, a retired real estate agent residing in Wayzata.
The painting originally belonged to
Restitution Efforts and Historical Accountability
The miniature was rediscovered in 2013 within the collection of the Museum of Military History in Vienna. Following its identification, the piece was submitted to an Austrian
Johannes Gassner, the Austrian deputy consul general who facilitated the return, acknowledged the long timeline involved in the process. He noted that while the restitution cannot reverse the atrocities committed during the period, it serves as a necessary gesture of historical responsibility. According to Gassner, Austria has worked in recent decades to confront its role in the crimes of the Nazi era, emphasizing that it is never too late to acknowledge such past actions.
A Symbol of Personal and Historical Significance
For Sondell, the recovery of the miniature is deeply personal. She noted that her family was profoundly impacted by the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of three of her grandparents in the Dachau and Sobibor camps. While the miniature represents only a small fraction of the art collection that was taken from her relative, she views its return as a significant act of recognition for the individual lives affected by the systemic theft of the period.
Sondell expressed appreciation for the effort made by the Austrian government to track down the family and return the heirloom. She remains hopeful that such acts of restitution can serve as a broader message of reconciliation. The whereabouts of the remainder of Eduard Epstein’s art collection, which was largely dispersed or destroyed following its seizure on March 28, 1940, remain unknown.
