An Austrian arbitration court ruled on Tuesday that five paintings by Austrian art nouveau painter Gustav Klimt seized by the Nazis should be returned to their owner’s family, a report said on Monday.
The court ruled that “conditions have been met for the five paintings to be given back to the heirs to Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer”.
The paintings by the early 20th century painter, which are currently displayed at the Belvedere gallery in Vienna, have been since 1999 the subject of a legal battle between United States citizen Maria Altmann (89), Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer’s niece, and the Austrian state.
The paintings include the modernist masterpiece Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, painted in 1907.
The two parties to the lawsuit agreed in May to abide by the decision of the arbitration court.
A sixth painting, Amalie Zuckerkandl, has been removed from the lawsuit.
The collection is valued at more than €150-million ($180-million), of which €50-million is for the “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I alone.
Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer was a Jewish industrialist whose wealth was seized by the Nazis after Germany annexed Austria in 1938. He died in 1946.
The Austrian government claimed that the paintings belonged to the state as Adele Bloch-Bauer, who died in 1925, had asked her husband in her will to give the artworks to the Belvedere.
But Altmann’s lawyer said the paintings were not Adele’s to give away and that Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer had bequeathed the pictures to his family in his will.
Austrian museum officials said on Monday that they wanted to buy back the paintings, at least the masterpiece Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.
Altmann, who lives in Los Angeles, told Austrian state television that she wanted the two main paintings in the collection, including the masterpiece portrait, to remain in Austrian museums, as she was willing to sell them.
She said she was willing to sell the other paintings but did not say which country she wanted them to be in. – AFP