France to return Nazi-looted Klimt painting to rightful Jewish heirs

world
France To Return Nazi-Looted Klimt Painting To Rightful Jewish Heirs
France Nazis Stolen Art, © AP/Press Association Images
Share this article

By Associated Press Reporters

The French government has announced it will return a Nazi-looted Gustav Klimt landscape painting to its rightful owners more than 80 years after it was stolen from a Jewish family in Austria in 1938.

The colourful 1905 oil work by the Austrian symbolist painter, titled Rosebushes under the Trees, has been hanging in Paris’s Musee d’Orsay museum for decades.

Advertisement

French culture minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin told a Paris news conference that “the decision to return a major work from the public collections illustrates our commitment to the duty of justice and reparation vis-a-vis plundered families”.

The oil work will be returned to the family of Nora Stiasny, a Holocaust victim who was dispossessed during a forced sale in August 1938.


French culture minister Roselyne Bachelot
French culture minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin (Alain Jocard/AP)

Advertisement

Ms Bachelot-Narquin said French authorities had not initially identified the painting as being stolen by the Nazis, and its provenance only recently came to light after French government-led investigations.

“It is in recent years that the true origin of the painting has been established,” she said, adding that it was “the only Gustav Klimt painting owned by France”.

“Rosebushes under the Trees is a testament to the lives that a criminal will has stubbornly sought to eliminate.”

Thousands of artworks looted by the Nazis across Europe wound up in French museums after the Allies defeated Nazi Germany in 1945.

Advertisement

Though many have been returned, French authorities have stepped up efforts in recent years to find homes for the scores of hanging heirlooms that remain unclaimed.

Read More

Message submitting... Thank you for waiting.

Want us to email you top stories each lunch time?

Download our Apps
© BreakingNews.ie 2024, developed by Square1 and powered by PublisherPlus.com