pr:P1683
| - Rieger, a Jewish-Austrian dentist and art collector active in the early 20th century, was one of Schiele’s top patrons. He treated Schiele as a patient and was known to have accepted works of art as payment for medical treatments. By the late 1930s, Reiger’s collection included some 800 works by Austrian modernists. According to the German advisory commission, Rieger may have owned as many as 150 pieces by Schiele.In 1938, when Austria was annexed to Germany, Rieger faced persecution and was forced to sell his collection, a portion of which ended up in the hands of Nazi-era art dealer Friedrich Welz. After being deported, Rieger died in 1942 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. In 1944, his wife Berta died in Auschwitz. Their son Robert, who died in 1985, survived persecution and fled to France and then New York in 1939 with his wife and daughter. (en)
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