Stolen Klimt Worth At Least $27 Million Returned After 70 Years To Jewish Heir

Written by Harold Kinder Wednesday, 05 October 2011 21:44

Vienna - A stolen Gustav Klimt painting worth £26m plus that was confiscated by the Nazis must be returned to the heirs of a Canadian Jewish family. It has been in the collection of a well known Austrian museum (the Museum of Modern Arts in Saltburg) for decades but under restitution laws is set to return to the grandson of its original owner Amalie Redlich, who died in the Holocaust.  Georges Jorisch is an 81 year old man living in Montreal and the only surviving member of the family. The painting will most likely end up at auction at either Sotheby's or Christie's.

It is speculated that the Neue Gallery in New York a private museum owned by the Estee Lauder family is interested in the painting for its collection. The Nazi controlled government had seized the painting, after she was deported in 1941, at the height of World War II. She was later murdered. The work "Litzlberg on the Attersee "was painted in 1915 and depicts cottages and churches with a lake in the foreground and hills in the background. The large landscape is painted in Klimt's unique Secessionist style.

Under the  1998 restitution law, Austria has returned some 10,000 paintings confiscated by the Nazis to the heirs of their rightful owners. "The conditions for a return of the painting to Amalie Redlich's rightful heirs have been fulfilled," said Salzburg deputy governor Wilfried Haslauer in a statement released on Thursday. "As painful as returning this painting is for the, collection, the province and all of Austria, I believe the Salzburg government must stay on the path started in 2002 and not allow itself to benefit from a criminal regime," Wilfried Haslauer, director of the Museum of Modern Arts, also said, The local assembly of Salzburg province must still approve the restitution in order to handover the painting but this is expected to go ahead in a few weeks time.

A prized Gustav Klimt painting stolen from a Montrealer's grandmother during the Second World War will be removed from an Austrian museum before officials decide if it should be returned to its rightful owner. The Austrian government and museum officials announced Thursday that the 1915 painting Litzlberg am Attersee was the rightful property of Amalie Redlich, and her only heir, Georges Jorisch, 83, should benefit from a portion of the eventual sale of this painting, estimated at least $27 million.The local assembly of Salzburg province, which owns the painting, still has to approve the restitution, but this was expected to go ahead without any problems, as evidence of ownership had been cleared.

"The conditions for a return of the painting to Amalie Redlich's rightful heirs have been fulfilled," deputy governor Wilfried Haslauer said in a statement.

"Therefore I will recommend that the Salzburg government return the artwork to Georges Jorisch. "Art experts tracing the provenance of the painting have determined that it was part of a collection belonging to Redlich that was looted by the Nazis.

Viktor Zuckerhandl was a wealthy Austrian Jew who liked to buy art. When he and his wife died childless, his collection went to his sister, Amalie. Redlich and her daughter, Mathilde, were deported to Lodz, Poland, in 1941 and presumed executed. Mathilde's husband and son, Georges, had fled Vienna in 1938. When they returned after the war, all of Redlich's paintings were gone.

The painting was purchased by an art collector in Salzburg; it was later traded to the Salzburg state gallery, and in 1952 joined the inventory of the Salzburg Modern Art Museum.

Government officials will decide in July whether to follow a recommendation that the art be returned to its rightful owner.

This is the second time Jorisch and his legal team have successfully reclaimed a Klimt.

In 2010, the Church of Cassone-Landscape with Cypresses was sold at Sotheby's for $45.4 million. That painting was also part of his grandmother's looted collection.

The painting turned up in 1962, loaned out for an exhibit celebrating the 100th anniversary of Klimt's birth. Jorisch split an undisclosed portion of the proceeds of the auction with the collector who owned the painting at the time.

Under a 1998 restitution law, Austria has returned 10,000 Nazi-stolen paintings to the descendants of their former owners.

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