A Californian woman who sued to retrieve US$ 150 million worth of family paintings stolen by the Nazis is currently in mediation efforts with the Austrian government in a federal court. News of the court-ordered talks came about eight months after the US Supreme Court ruled that Maria Altmann, 89, could sue over the six Gustav Klimt paintings. Representatives from the Austrian government and the Austrian Gallery, where the paintings are currently on show, were present at the session, which was being brokered by a professor with expertise in Austrian history. The "Austria Press Agency" reported that Austrian historian and professor Dieter Binder was the court-appointed mediator. The paintings are among an estimated 600,000 art works the Nazis stole during Adolf Hitler's rule in Germany. Austria also faces a separate class-action art lawsuit in a federal court in New York.