35.  On May 23, 1947, the Zurich District Court recognized ALTMANN as the heir to 25% of Ferdinand's estate. At the time, ALTMANN was a U.S. citizen residing in Los Angeles County.  ALTMANN's older brother Robert Bentley of Vancouver, Canada, and sister Luise Gattin of Zagreb, Yugoslavia, were recognized as heirs of 25% and 50% of the estate, respectively.  Luise was stranded in Yugoslavia, where she had survived the War with two young children.  Her husband was arrested by the communists and executed for being a “capitalist.”  ALTMANN’s older brother Robert, who had fled to Vancouver, Canada with his two other brothers, took up the task of attempting to retrieve Ferdinand’s property, which by law now belonged to his heirs.

36.  Robert retained a lawyer in Vienna, Dr. Gustav Rinesch, a family friend who had also been retained by Ferdinand in the months before his death, to locate and retrieve property stolen from Ferdinand during the Nazi period.

37.  ALTMANN's older brother Karl Bloch-Bauer, a captain in the allied armed forces, returned to Vienna and recovered one of the Klimt paintings, Houses in Unterach am Attersee, from Dr. Führer, who was imprisoned for Nazi activities.  The painting was kept, along with other artworks taken by Dr. Führer from Ferdinand's collection, in Karl's (or his lawyer's) apartment in Vienna pending a request for permission to export the works to Canada.

38.  In December, 1947, the Museum of the City of Vienna offered to return the painting Beechwood to Ferdinand’s heirs in exchange for a refund of the purchase price.

39.  In January 1948, Dr. Rinesch wrote to the AUSTRIAN GALLERY informing it of the heirs' claim to the three paintings that had come into the museum's possession as a result of transactions conducted by Dr. Führer.

40.  In February 1948, Dr. Karl Garzarolli of the AUSTRIAN GALLERY responded in writing to Dr. Rinesch, asserting (falsely) that six Klimt paintings were bequeathed to the museum by the will of Adele Bloch-Bauer, who died in 1925, and that Ferdinand had asked permission from the museum to keep the paintings during his lifetime. Dr. Garzarolli demanded that the heirs deliver the other paintings referenced in Adele's will to the museum.  These false claims were repeated to Dr. Rinesch in February, 1948 by the former director of the AUSTRIAN GALLERY, Prof. Bruno Grimschitz, who had been removed from his position after the War.  At the end of February, 1948, Dr. Rinesch wrote to Robert Bentley informing him of the AUSTRIAN GALLERY's position and its claims concerning the will of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

41.  In March 1948, Dr. Garzarolli learned of the true contents of Adele's will and probate proceedings. He then realized that the AUSTRIAN GALLERY's claims concerning the Klimt paintings were untenable.  First, in the probate proceedings concerning Adele Bloch-Bauer's will, the attorney for the estate, Ferdinand's brother Gustav Bloch-Bauer, had declared that the Klimt paintings were not the property of Adele, but of her husband Ferdinand, and they were treated as such in the estate proceedings. Second, in her will Adele had expressed only the unenforceable wish that her husband consider leaving the paintings to the museum after his death. Third, although Gustav Bloch-Bauer in 1926, and Prof. Grimschitz in 1948, declared that Ferdinand, had promised to fulfill his wife's wishes, there was no notarized document signed by Ferdinand, making the alleged promise unenforceable against Ferdinand or his heirs.

42.  Garzarolli realized the invalidity of his museum’s claim to the Klimt paintings, as he very revealingly confided in a letter to his Nazi-era predecessor, Bruno Grimschitz, on March 8, 1948:

Because there is no mention of these facts [the purported donation of the Klimt paintings by Adele or Ferdinand] in the available files of the AUSTRIAN GALLERY, i.e. neither a court-authorized nor a notarized or other personal declaration of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer exists, which in my opinion you certainly should have obtained, I find myself in an extremely difficult situation. . . .  I cannot understand why even during the Nazi era an incontestable declaration of gift in favor of the state was never obtained from Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. . . .

In any case, the situation is growing into a sea snake . . . I am very concerned that up until now all of the cases of restitution have brought with them immense confusion. In my opinion it would be also in your interest to stick by me while this is sorted out. Perhaps that way we will best come out of this not exactly danger-free situation.