Austrian Ministry of Culture recommended Leopold Museum to return four of their descendants of their prewar owners.

Ministry of Culture of Austria Leopold Museum Vienna advised to return the four works from his collection to the descendants of pre-war owners. The investigation commission from the Ministry of Culture of these paintings were found stolen or sold under duress Nazis.

This is not the first case of restorative dispute over the collection of Rudolf Leopold. Back in 1998 in New York at the MoMA exhibition was arrested "Portrait of Wally brushes Egon Schiele (Egon Schiele) from the collection of Leopold. The heirs of the pre-war owner of the portrait demanded its restitution. Since then, the picture is in the U.S. under investigation. By the provenance of some other paintings were also claims.

In recent years, criticism of the collection Leopold began to sound more and more. And after collector Rudolf Leopold's death in June of this year the heirs of the critics went to action. last week became aware of the progress in the "Portrait of Wally Egon Schiele (Egon Schiele). So yesterday followed the recommendation of the Ministry of Culture on the four works.

One of the pictures painted by Egon Schiele, and three works - the brush Romako Anton (Anton Romako).

Painting Egon Schiele's "House on the Sea" (1914), which were found by the commission, belonged to the Jewish art collector Jenny Steiner (Jenny Steiner), whose collection was confiscated by the Nazis in the late 1930's. In 1941, work has become Josephine Ernst (Josefine Ernst) at auction in Vienna Dorotheum. Fourteen years later, in 1955, Josephine's son, Johann Ernst (Johann Ernst) sold picture Rudolf Leopold.

A picture of the Austrian artist Anton Romako "Spring", "Nick crowned" and "Naked Girl" belonged to the Jewish doctor Oscar Reichel (Oskar Reichel), resided in Vienna. It is still not known for certain whether the work confiscated by the Nazis or purchased from the owner. Nevertheless, the Commission considers that the sale, if she still took place, was forced Nazis.

Ministry of Culture of Austria sought to clarity in the collection of Leopold. While the names of the legitimate heirs from Oscar Reichel and Jenny Steiner is not known. Publicizing their names might be made at the next stage of the process of restitution, which will largely depend on how the Leopold Foundation prefers to resolve the issue.

Leopold Foundation presented the recommendations of the commission from the Ministry of culture. And even though these recommendations are not binding, the leadership promised that he will take a "just solution».

Material prepared Maria Onuchina, AI

Sources: artdaily.com , artinvestment.ru