Linz, Austria – Town Returns $24M Klimt to Jewish Heirs of Original Owner

Linz, Austria – Officials from the Austrian town of Linz say they will restore a painting by Gustav Klimt to the descendants of a Jewish family robbed of the piece by the Nazis.

Linz Mayor Franz Dobusch said today that an expert called in by the town confirmed the work had been stolen from Aranka Munk, who was deported to a concentration camp, where she died in 1941.

Art historian Sophie Lillie identified the painting — painted with Klimt’s typical mosaic, gold-hued style — as a portrait of Ria Munk, Aranka’s daughter. It had been commissioned along with two others by the family in 1911.

Lillie confirmed the painting — worth 15 million euro ($24 million Cdn) — had been seized by the Nazis.

Family lawyer Alfred Noll applied in 2007 for the return of the painting, which made its way into Linz’s collection from an art dealer after the Second World War.

The legal heir, who has decided to remain anonymous, issued a statement welcoming the decision and thanking the local authorities, saying the return of the painting was “profoundly joyful.”

This isn’t the first time a Klimt work has had to be returned by Austrian authorities to heirs of Jewish art collectors.

In 2006, Austria gave back five Klimt paintings to the heirs of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, who owned the works and whose wife, Adele, was the subject of a well-known gold leaf-encrusted portrait that was among the paintings returned.

Bloch-Bauer was a Jewish sugar merchant who was forced to give up the paintings in 1938 when Austria was incorporated into Nazi Germany.