76.  On June 28, 1999, the committee met and quickly affirmed the recommendation of Wran and Kremser that the Klimt paintings not be returned. The committee did agree to return 16 Klimt drawings and 19 porcelain settings that had been donated by the family in 1948 as part of the consideration for export permits.  Gehrer simultaneously announced her adoption of the committee’s recommendations.

77.  The other members of the committee were not given copies of the two opinions by Lintl, nor were they given most of Schoenberg’s letters or informed of his request to see and respond to Kremser’s opinion.  Wran confirmed this when he informed Schoenberg of the committee’s decision. The Bloch-Bauer heirs and their attorney had been purposely excluded from the entire decision-making process.

78.  Not all of the committee members were in accord with Wran’s tactics. Ilsebill Barta-Fliedl abstained from the vote and questioned the judgment and motives of the other members.  Before the committee even discussed the matter she had been ordered by her superior, one of the government ministers, not to vote in favor of restitution in the Bloch-Bauer case. Apparently, the committee vote was predetermined by the Austrian government before the committee had even discussed the matter. The vote was a sham. At the end of the year, Barta-Fliedl resigned from the committee in protest.  She has stated that it was clear from the first couple of meetings that the attitudes of the other members of the committee were inconsistent with the purposes of the committee. The committee was made up of people who opposed art restitution in general and were especially hostile to the claims of Ferdinand’s heirs.