Vienna – Officials say an Austrian museum must return a precious Gustav Klimt painting to its rightful owners after they found out that the piece was seized by the Nazis during World War II.
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The painting, “Litzlberg am Attersee,” now belongs to Salzburg’s modern art museum MdM Salzburg and could be worth as much as €30 million ($44 million).
Salzburg deputy governor Wilfried Haslauer and the head of the museum, Toni Stooss said Thursday that research shows the Nazis seized the painting when they cleared the apartment of a woman named Amalie Redlich after deporting her to Poland in 1941, where she was killed.
Redlich’s heir is her grandson, Georges Jorisch, who Haslauer’s spokesman said lives in Montreal, Canada.
Salzburg’s government now has to decide whether to proceed with the restitution.