PARIS – France will return a painting by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt to the heirs of the Jewish family that was forced to sell it by the Nazis.
French culture minister Roselyne Bachelot said restoring it to its rightful owners was an acknowledgement of the crimes they suffered. She said the painting bore witness to the “broken lives” of the Nazi era.
The pre-war owner of “Rosiers sous les Arbres” (Rose Bushes Under the Trees) was Nora Stiasny, from a well-known Austrian Jewish family. She inherited it from her uncle, the Austrian industrialist and art collector Viktor Zuckerkandl, Bachelot told a news conference at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
Stiasny was forced to sell it in August 1938 at a knock-down price. She was deported to a concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, and died the same year.
The art dealer held on to the masterpiece until his death in the 1960s. France bought it at auction in 1980 for the Musée d’Orsay.(BBC)
