21. 07. 10. - 15:00

Nazi looted painting to return to Austria for €19mn

Vienna’s Rudolf Leopold Foundation has agreed to pay almost 20 million Euros for the return of a masterpiece by Egon Schiele after it was controversially confiscated in the United States more than 10 years ago.

A New York court was set to continue proceedings over Schiele’s painting "Bildnis Wally" to decide whether it can be regarded as stolen art but has since dropped the proceedings following an out-of-court settlement between the feuding parties.

The Viennese Rudolf Leopold Foundation – set up by art collector Rudolf Leopold who passed away last month – reportedly decided to compensate the heirs of late art trader Lea Bondi-Jaray with around 19 million Euros, according to reports from today (Weds).

The painting from 1912 was confiscated by American officials in 1998 to find out whether Bondi-Jaray was forced to give it to the Nazis during World War Two. This incident forced the Austrian government to appeal to all of the country’s museums and galleries to let their inventory be checked to ensure objects were not looted by the Nazis before or during the war.

Reports have it that the famous piece of art will be transferred back to Austria within the next few weeks. This would end a years-long legal feud between the city’s Leopold Museum and Bondi-Jaray’s family in the US.

Leopold acquired the painting in a swap deal from the Viennese Belvedere Museum in 1954 – nine years after the end of World War Two.

"Bildnis Wally" is not the only piece of art bought by Leopold over the past decades which were suspected of being looted by the Nazi henchmen when Austria was part of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.