Otto Kallir

[1] Among the most important publications of Verlag Neuer Graphik was Das graphische Werk von Egon Schiele,[2] a portfolio containing the first editions of the artist's six etchings and two of his lithographs.

Eventually, Nirenstein became an internationally recognized art dealer, representing Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele and Alfred Kubin.

[3] Nirenstein also salvaged the estate of Peter Altenberg, creating a permanent gallery installation (later donated to the Wien Museum) featuring the contents of the poet's former hotel room.

At a time when Austrians were still relatively unfamiliar with European modernism, Nirenstein mounted one-man shows of work by Lovis Corinth, Edvard Munch, Auguste Renoir, Paul Signac and Vincent van Gogh.

In 1928, Nirenstein collaborated with the Hagenbund artists' association to mount a major exhibition commemorating the tenth anniversary of Egon Schiele's death.

Because the modern artists represented by the Neue Galerie were not subject to Austria's export laws in 1938, and most were in any case considered "degenerate" by the Nazis, Kallir was able to bring a significant inventory with him into exile.

As chairman of the League, Kallir endeavored to secure US visas and affidavits for persecuted Austrians, eventually arranging for the safe passage of about 80 refugees.

In 1941, he convinced Otto von Habsburg, who had recently arrived in America, to accompany him to Washington D.C., where they met with the Attorney General, Francis Biddle.

The FBI closed its investigation with a statement from J. Edgar Hoover confirming that the affair had been instigated by the jealousy of a rival political group and had no basis in fact.

On April 14, 1942, Otto von Habsburg wrote to the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, predecessor of the CIA): "Kallir was attacked from many sides.

[9] Through repeated showings, sales and gifts to museums, Kallir gradually established the reputations not just of Schiele, but also of Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, and Alfred Kubin.

The Galerie St. Etienne organized the first American one-person shows of such artists as Erich Heckel (1955), Klimt (1959), Kokoschka (1940), and Kubin (1941), Paula Modersohn-Becker (1958).

During the 1940s, when works by the Austrian masters were almost impossible to sell, Kallir achieved a major success with the "discovery" of the self-taught octogenarian painter Anna Mary Robertson Moses.

However, in 1998, Kallir's records facilitated the seizure of a stolen Schiele painting, Portrait of Wally, on loan from Austria to the Museum of Modern Art.

Kallir had unsuccessfully attempted to assist Mahler Werfel in reclaiming the painting after the war, and as with the Schiele, his records proved instrumental in the later recovery effort.

In an earlier case involving another Schiele, “Seated Woman with Bent Left Leg” (1917), also purchased from Kornfeld in 1956, the judge ruled in favor of the owner, David Bakalar, who had filed for summary judgement.

The case turned on the defense of “laches,” an "equitable doctrine asserted by Bakalar that bars title actions in which there has been a lengthy delay in filing a claim".

[22] The judge stated, “After more than two years of discovery in connection with this litigation and the benefit of archival research unavailable in 1956, Defendants have not produced any concrete evidence that the Nazis looted the Drawing or that it was otherwise taken from Grünbaum.” [23] • 1968: Silbernes Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um das Land Wien