He then worked for Gustav Fock in Leipzig, Jacques Rosenthal in Munich, Martin Breslauer in Berlin, Lipsius & Tischer in Kiel and Friedrich Cohen in Bonn.
[6] When the Nazis (National Socialists) came to power in 1933, many Jewish art dealers like Alfred Flechtheim had to flee after their galleries were Aryanized, that is transferred to non-Jews.
However, Graupe received special permission from the Nazi Reich Chamber of Culture to continue art dealing and auctions until 1937.
Other Jewish collections which passed through Graupe in the Nazi era include Oscar Wassermann, van Dieman,[14] Emma Budge[15] and Leo Lewin.
[16] By 1937 Graupe had organized about 160 auctions with works by Rubens, Rembrandt or Tiepolo, Corot, Menzel and Liebermann, when he himself had to flee to Switzerland, the business in Berlin was aryanized, that is, transferred to a non-Jewish owner, Hans Wolfgang Lange (1904–1945) and continued until 1944.
Only the painting "The Man is at Sea" by Vincent van Gogh could be smuggled out of occupied France, and Graupe sold it to Errol Flynn.
[22] His activities were investigated by the Art Looting Intelligence Unit in 1945 and 1946, and Graupe was put on the Red Flag List.
His son Tommy Grange was also an art dealer and continued to conduct research, restitution and compensation negotiations for the family until the 1960s.