AJC Hails Supreme Court Decision in Republic of Austria v. Altmann

NEW YORK, June 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Jewish Committee hailed
today's U.S. Supreme Court decision in Republic of Austria v. Altmann in
which the court ruled lawsuits regarding Holocaust-era looted art and other
stolen property can be brought against foreign governments in U.S. courts.

Search. Compare. Save. searchAJC filed an amicus brief with the
Supreme Court supporting a family's attempt to recover artwork confiscated
by the Nazis from the Republic of Austria. At issue are six works of art by
the well-known Austrian painter Gustav Klimt that were seized from the
estate of the Jewish businessman, Ferdinand Bloch, and never returned to his
heirs. The paintings are currently housed at the state owned Austrian
Gallery.

"AJC's involvement in the case is part of our ongoing commitment to assist
Jewish victims and survivors of the Holocaust as well as their heirs with
restitution claims," said Jeffrey P. Sinensky, AJC's general counsel and
director of its domestic policy department.

AJC has played an integral role in advocating for rehabilitation and
resettlement programs, restitution, and the return of Jewish assets to
Holocaust survivors and their heirs even before the end of World War II. AJC
was a founding member of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against
Germany, and the Committee for Jewish Material Claims on Austria, which
resulted in a 1955 agreement providing for reparations to victims of Nazism
in Austria.

In more recent years, AJC has been an official observer of the International
Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims and an active participant in
the various discussions and negotiating efforts to secure the restitution of
former Jewish communal and private property.