George Grosz, the great German expressionist painter and social critic was despised by the Nazis, who viewed him as "one of the most despicable representatives of degenerate art" - claiming that he worked in an 'anti-German fashion'.

Grosz made it to America before the Nazis came to power in 1933. The day after their victory Nazi thugs kicked in the door of his studio. If they had laid their hands on him his chances of survival would have been slim.

The fate that befell the work of this brilliant artist was a different kind of death.

Grosz consigned most of his work to his dealer, but the dealer who was Jewish also fled Germany and only took a limited amount of the work with him. Grosz's works that were in the museums were seized by the Nazis - some 285 works in all, some of which was burned.

His wife Eva said Grosz, not knowing what fate had befallen his works, began to suffer from "anxiety, particularly nightmares" and began to "drink without moderation". In 1959, shortly after his return to Berlin, Grosz was was discovered unconscious after a drinking binge. He died a short time later.

An article in Der Spiegel discusses the efforts of art historian Ralph Jentsch to catalog Grosz's works. Jentsch believes that the stolen works should be returned to the family.

Der Spiegel:

Grosz was a prolific artist. He created about 450 paintings and more than 15,000 works on paper. Pictures from his Berlin days are worth millions today, and Jentsch has traced some of them to prestigious museums in New York, Vienna, Tokyo and Bremen. But their directors are opposed to returning the works to Grosz's heirs. They see themselves as the rightful owners.

This claim, however, is at least up for debate. Since the 1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets, there has been international agreement that works of art stolen or "confiscated as a result of persecution" during the Nazi years should be returned to their former owners. In the Grosz case, this would be his son Marty, 78, who lives in Philadelphia, and his sister-in-law Lillian, in Princeton, New Jersey. The Grosz heirs agree that they do not want to place restituted works on the market. Instead, they hope to exhibit the paintings and drawings confiscated in the Nazi era at a George Grosz museum, and they are considering Berlin as a possible location.

Attempts to do justice to the works of George Grosz that were trafficked through legally contested routes has proved daunting, but it is an important fight.

Link here for the Der Spiegel article that maps out the complex background of works that are under contention.