December 16, 2005
A Canadian family has won a legal battle in its attempt to reclaim a European art collection assembled by their Jewish grandfather before the Second World War and later confiscated by the Nazis and then the Communists. A panel of three judges of a Czech appeals court on Wednesday upheld a lower-court ruling which granted possession of 21 art works to the Toronto banking executive Andrew Federer and his family. The Federer family has been fighting for more than 14 years to gain title to and possession of some of the estimated 140 art works –including paintings by Gustav Klimt, James Ensor and Oskar Kokoschka – owned by their grandfather, businessman Oskar Federer. Many of the works are housed in small public galleries in the Czech cities of Ostrava and Pardubice. The gallery operators have fought a protracted battle to keep the works, and it is expected they will appeal yesterday's ruling to the Czech Supreme Court once the decision is published next month.
