High Court Allows Holocaust-Art Lawsuit

Tue Jun 8, 8:23 AM ET

By GINA HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A California woman can sue to retrieve $150 million worth of
family paintings stolen by the Nazis, the Supreme Court ruled Monday in
opening American courts to World War II-era disputes the Bush administration
had wanted settled diplomatically.

The ruling was celebrated by Jewish leaders, who hope for jury verdicts
while some Holocaust survivors still are alive.

The court ruled 6-3 vote that 88-year-old Maria Altmann could pursue a
lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles that seeks to force Austria to turn
over six Gustav Klimt (news - web sites) paintings that include portraits of
her aunt. The paintings are among an estimated 600,000 art works the Nazis
stole during Adolf Hitler's rule in Germany.

"The court has taken a major step forward to make possible finally, 60 years
after the war ended, some measure of redress for victims of the Holocaust
whose property was stolen and never returned," said Charles Moerdler, an
attorney for The Austrian Jewish Community. "It is both symbolic and
practical. It is literally a godsend."

The decision, over the strong objections of three court conservatives, will
encourage victims of wartime atrocities to pursue lawsuits in America. They
may have a hard time collecting money.

Cases already are pending that involve women who claim they were used by the
Japanese during World War II as sex slaves; and Holocaust survivors and
heirs who have sued the French national railroad for transporting more than
70,000 Jews and others to Nazi concentration camps.

In addition, Austria faces a separate class-action art lawsuit in federal
court in New York, and Poland is accused in a lawsuit of taking Jewish
families' land.

Justice John Paul Stevens (news - web sites), writing for the majority, said
courts have jurisdiction of old property cases under a 1976 federal law that
spelled out when other countries can be sued in the United States.

In a dissent, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said the decision was a broad one
that "opens foreign nations worldwide to vast and potential liability for
expropriation claims in regards to conduct that occurred generations ago,
including claims that have been the subject of international negotiation and
agreement."

Kennedy was joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Clarence Thomas
(news - web sites).

The ruling was a defeat for the Bush administration, which argued America's
relationships with other countries were on the line in the case. Old claims
should be resolved diplomatically or politically, not in court fights, the
administration maintained.

Stevens said the government still can seek to head off individual lawsuits
by making formal requests that they be dismissed on diplomatic grounds.

Justice Stephen Breyer (news - web sites), in a concurring opinion, said
that it will not necessarily be easy to win such cases. Americans probably
still will have to pursue claims in foreign countries first and may face
other obstacles in U.S. courts, including statutes of limitations, said
Breyer, one of two Jewish members on the court.

Austrian government spokesman Gottfried Toman said he was disappointed with
the ruling. He said, however, "If we have to conduct the trial in the United
States, so be it. We will be successful there."

The Nazis seized the possessions of Altmann's wealthy Jewish family,
including the prized paintings that now hang in the Austrian Gallery, soon
after they came to power in Austria in 1938. She and her husband escaped to
America after she had been detained and her husband imprisoned in a labor
camp.

Austria contends rightful ownership of the paintings, because Altmann's
aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, asked that the art be donated to the government
gallery before her death in 1925.

Klimt, an Austrian impressionist who died in 1918, founded the Vienna
Secession art movement. Last November, his "The Villa at Attersee," a lush
1917 landscape, sold at auction in New York for $29.1 million.

Altmann's lawyer, E. Randol Schoenberg, said he will ask for a quick trial
because of her age.

Altmann said she doubts it will come to that. The case could instead by
settled in arbitration, she said.

"The trial would bring out the real facts, which are pretty bad for the
Austrians. I think they will want to avoid it," she said in a telephone
interview.

Her uncle died in exile in Switzerland at the end of World War II and left
his possessions to Altmann and two of her siblings. Only Altmann is alive.

The case is Austria v. Altmann, 03-13.