Son of Rudolf Leopold Ditard intends to resolve all disputes over the collection of restitution of his father for a year

Son of Rudolf Leopold intends to resolve all disputes over restitution collection of his late father during the year. This 54-year-old psychotherapist Ditard Leopold, who became a board member of the museum in June 2010, shortly before his father's death, told news agency Bloomberg.

This statement is especially important in light of permitted recently restorative dispute over the" Portrait of Wally Egon Schiele. As a result, the heirs of the owner of the portrait of Lea Bondi Yarai will receive 19 million dollars, and the portrait back in the Leopold Museum . The museum owns one of the largest collections of works by Schiele, plans to sell some of them to compensate the heirs of Bondi. The sum of $ 19 million was identified during the life of Rudolf Leopold. According to his son, the founder of the museum wanted to return the picture at any price, so do not skimp. Rudolph is often said that he spends too much on the desired product, but after ten years it became clear that he had bought them more cheaply. "Portrait of Wally returned to the Leopold Museum this weekend and go directly to the exhibition, organized in his honor, which will focus on the history of writing the portrait and its provenance, including the latest restorative events.

Ditard optimistic about future restitution. Cause he intends to fast, efficient, comprehensive, and most importantly, amicably. The fact that Leopold Museum previously tightened such cases, citing its lack of accountability Austrian law on restitution apply only to government agencies, the son of Rudolf Leopold believes is not quite true in politics. This eventually led to protests by organizations such as the Jewish Community Vienna, in 2008, hung around the museum placards of protest, and surround it with the territory of yellow ribbons with the words "crime scene».

According Ditarda Foundation, Leopold would now like to address these issues directly with the heirs, without involving lawyers. With one of the heiresses Ditard already contacted independently and according to him, she responded to the offer of cooperation positively. This is the fate of the paintings from the collection of the Jewish collector Jenny Steiner (Jenny Steiner). The Nazis confiscated Steiner its collection includes paintings of Egon Schiele's "House on the Sea" (1914). The heirs have appealed to the Leopold Foundation to restorative action in respect of this picture. Now Ditard proposed two options for solving the problem. First, you can sell a painting at auction and the proceeds divided between the museum and the heirs of a pre-specified ratio. Or Leopold Museum could buy it from the heirs, just as he did with "Portrait Valley. Sam Ditard leans more to the second option, since in this case the picture probably will remain accessible to the public. It remains for collective decision heirs.

Ditard Leopold has already determined that approximately one percent of works from the museum's collection comes from the Jewish pre-war collection (only about 50 works). He intends for the next year to find out all of their provenance, and in case of legitimate heirs to the restitution. And after the resolution of cases Ditard would like to organize a common exhibition on prewar Viennese collections, paintings and the fate of their respective owners.

material prepared by Mary Onuchina, AI

Sources: bloomberg.com , artinvestment.ru