March 16, 2006
Five Gustav Klimt paintings stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish Austrian family during World War II were on their way from Vienna to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wednesday following a seven-year ownership battle by an heir who emigrated to California. Among the paintings is the "Adele Bloch-Bauer I", one of Klimt's most famous works. It has an estimated value of US $120 million. A Vienna museum had displayed the works until an arbitration court ruled earlier this year that they must be returned to Maria Altmann, 89, and other heirs of the Jewish family that owned the paintings before the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938. Altmann fought to recover the paintings, but made clear that she preferred the works to remain on display rather than disappear into a private collection. "In gratitude to the city and county of Los Angeles, which provided me a home when I fled the Nazis, and whose courts enabled me to recover my family's paintings at long last, I am very pleased that these wonderful paintings will be seen at LACMA," the news agency AP quoted her as saying.
