Visitors to the Art Institute of Chicago studying a painting by the French artist Georges Seurat. Photo: Reuters/Beata Zawrzel

New York investigators on Wednesday seized artwork by 1900s Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele from three museums after it was discovered that they were Nazi-looted items once owned by a Jewish art collector who was murdered in the Holocaust, according to a new report.

Russian War Prisoner (1916), a watercolor and pencil on paper piece, was taken from the Art Institute of Chicago; Portrait of a Man (1917), a pencil on paper drawing, was seized from the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh; and Girl With Black Hair (1911), a watercolor and pencil on paper work, was seized from the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio, the New York Times reported. Each art piece is reportedly valued at over $1 million.

Warrants issued by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said “there is reasonable cause to believe” the works were stolen property. The office told the New York Times that it is currently investigating about a dozen works by Schiele believed to be looted by the Nazis. Prosecutors said the works rightfully belong to three living heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian-born Jewish art collector and cabaret artist who died in the Dachau concentration camp during the Holocaust in Germany in 1941.

Grünbaum’s heirs said their ancestor was forced by the Nazis to sign an illegal power of attorney while at Dachau in 1938, and that he never intended to give up ownership of his art collection. They filed civil claims against other museums as well, seeking the restitution of roughly a dozen Scheiele artworks once owned by Grünbaum. They have made claims against the Museum of Modern Art and the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California, and others.

Following Wednesday’s seizure, the Art Institute of Chicago told The New York Times in a statement: “We are confident in our legal acquisition and lawful possession of this work. The piece is the subject of civil litigation in federal court, where this dispute is being properly litigated and where we are also defending our legal ownership.”

The Carnegie Museum of Art said it will act “in accordance with ethical, legal, and professional requirements and norms,” and “of course cooperate fully with inquiries from the relevant authorities.”