Thaddeus Grauer (died after 1945) was an Austrian

art dealer An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationshi ...

implicated in the trade in

looted art Looted art has been a consequence of looting during war, natural disaster and riot for centuries. Looting of art, archaeology and other cultural property may be an opportunistic criminal act or may be a more organized case of unlawful or unet ...

from the Second World War but whose loyalties and activities are uncertain.

Second World War era

Around the time of the start of the Second World War, Grauer moved to Switzerland. In 1945 he told the British Consulate-General in

Sao Paulo SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S ...

that this was to avoid

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

persecution. In 1941, he moved again, to Brazil where he was resident at Rua Alagoas 664, Sao Paulo. He left his personal effects with the auctioneer

Theodor Fischer Theodor Fischer (28 May 1862 – 25 December 1938) was a German architect and teacher. Career Fischer planned public housing projects for the city of Munich beginning in 1893. He was the joint founder and first chairman of the Deutscher Wer ...

in Switzerland with the exception of pictures that he instructed were to be shipped to Brazil.Harclerode, Peter, & Brendan Pittaway. (1999) ''The Lost Masters: The Looting of Europe's Treasurehouses''. London: Victor Gollancz, p. 240. Recently declassified American official records note a 1942 letter from Grauer to M.P. Brandeis in New York suggesting that Brandeis organise an exhibition of anti-Nazi

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

in New York. Grauer informed Brandeis in the letter that he was managing an estate 800 kilomoteres north of Sao Paulo in a region that had been infiltrated by many Japanese.

Looted art

In 1998, more than 24 paintings looted from European Jews were discovered in a Sao Paulo art gallery that were traced to Grauer and before that Theodor Fischer. Fischer had been an important figure in the trading of art looted by the Nazis during the Second World War. The paintings included a Picasso and a Monet."Arte expropriada tem destino debatido."
Mario Cesar Carvalho, ''Folha De S.Paulo'', 16 September 1998. Retrieved 29 January 2015.

References

External links

*http://www.fold3.com/image/270080827/ Austrian art dealers Year of birth missing Year of death missing {{Austria-bio-stub