Boston, MA – The Museum of Fine Arts has filed a federal lawsuit to retain ownership of a 1913 oil painting sold during the Nazi occupation of Austria.
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Attorneys for Claudia Seger-Thomschitz, an Austrian woman who claims she is the rightful owner of the Oskar Kokoschka's painting, say the painting was sold under duress in 1939 by Oskar Reichel, a Jewish physician who ran an art gallery in Vienna.
But the museum claims its research shows the painting was sold voluntarily to another Jew. The painting changed hands several times before being donated to the MFA in 1972.
Lawyers for Seger-Thomschitz, who was designated by one of Reichel's sons as his "select niece and designated heiress," claim Reichel was forced to close his medical practice and sell his gallery to survive. [AP]