AP Worldstream, March 6, 2000


Copyright 2000 Associated Press
AP Worldstream


March 6, 2000; Monday

SECTION: International news

LENGTH: 424 words

HEADLINE:

Battle over Klimts to move to United States because Austrian court costs too high

BYLINE: GEORGE JAHN


DATELINE: VIENNA, Austria

BODY:
A lawyer representing the heirs of a late Jewish industrialist who fled
Austria's Nazis said Monday he was planning to take the government to U.S.
court over its refusal to hand over several valuable paintings because court
costs were too high in Austria.

''The financial barriers imposed by the government are simply too high,''
said E. Randol Schoenberg, of Los Angeles. ''We will seek our remedies
elsewhere, most likely with a lawsuit filed in California.''

At issue is ownership of several world-famous paintings by Gustav Klimt,
with an estimated value of dlrs 150 million.

Lawyers for the heirs had originally planned a legal battle in Austria. But
under Austrian law that sets court costs according to the value of the
objects being contested, the heirs would have had to provide a deposit
equaling more than dlrs 300,000.

Schoenberg said an appeal to reduce the costs was denied.

The lawyers say the works, now hanging in the state Belvedere gallery,
should be returned to the heirs of the late industrialist, who fled Austria
in 1938 amid the Nazi takeover, leaving most of his art collection behind.

The Austrian government says the paintings were given to the museum through Bloch-Bauer's wife's will before the Nazis seized power in 1939. In that case, officials said, the works would not fall under a 1998 restitution law
that has resulted in the return of some valuable art works, including 250
objects taken from the Rothschild family worth millions of dollars.

Klimt, an Austrian artist who died in 1918, was among the founders of a
modern art movement called the Secession, which rejected academic painting for Impressionist and Art Nouveau styles.

For decades after the war, Austria presented itself as Nazi Germany's first
victim, pointing to its annexation by Germany in 1938 as an act of
aggression. Only in recent years have Austrians generally begun to accept
that most of the country welcomed the annexation.

As in Germany, several Austrian banks that profited from the sale of gold
taken from Holocaust victims have settled class action suits or are
negotiating on them. Lawsuits also are being prepared against some Austrian firms on behalf of survivors of forced labor during the Nazi era and their relatives.

Austria's past is again in the spotlight following the swearing in last
month of a government coalition half made up of a far right party whose
leader has praised some aspects of the Nazi regime and which has capitalized on strong anti-foreign sentiment among voters.

(gj)