U.S. citizen allowed to sue Austria over war loot

By STEVE LASH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/07/04

WASHINGTON < The Supreme Court on Monday allowed a Jewish woman, over the
U.S. government's objections, to sue the Austrian government to retrieve
paintings she says the Nazis stole from her family during the Holocaust.

Maria Altmann can pursue her claim under a 1976 federal law allowing private
citizens to bring lawsuits against foreign governments in U.S. courts, the
justices said in their 6-3 decision. Altmann, 88, hopes to recover up to six
paintings by the renowned Austrian artist Gustav Klimt that had belonged to
her deceased uncle Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer and are now in the Austrian
Gallery.

The Austrian-born Altmann escaped the country soon after it was invaded and
annexed by the Nazis in 1938. She settled in California and became a U.S.
citizen in 1945.

"I'm grateful to this country that I love," Altmann said by telephone from
California after the court's decision.

A spokesman for the Austrian Embassy in Washington said his government was
"surprised" by the court's decision.

The U.S. government had urged the justices to dismiss Altmann's claim,
saying that allowing a private citizen's lawsuit to proceed against a
sovereign nation could interfere with the president's ability to conduct
foreign policy.

The justices said the president can raise the foreign policy concerns before
the federal judge who hears the case.

Austria maintains that the artwork was bequeathed to the gallery by
Altmann's aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, who died in 1925.

The European nation also had argued that the 1976 Foreign Sovereign
Immunities Act cannot be applied to the gallery's alleged receipt of goods
stolen during World War II, well before the law's enactment.

Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the majority, said Altmann did not
bring her claim against Austria until a journalist told her in 1998 that
some valuable works in the Austrian Gallery had not been donated but rather
were stolen by the Nazis. The claim, having been filed after 1976, can be
brought in a U.S. court, Stevens added.

Joining Stevens' opinion were Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia,
David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

In dissent, Justice Anthony Kennedy said Congress had expressed no intention
that the 1976 law could be applied retroactively to govern World War II-era
conduct.

Kennedy and his fellow dissenters, Chief Justice William Rehnquist and
Justice Clarence Thomas, also agreed with the federal government's concern
that allowing private lawsuits to proceed against foreign governments can
interfere with U.S. foreign policy.

© 2004 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution