PARIS (AP) – The French government announced Monday that it will return a landscape by Gustav Klimt more than 80 years after a Jewish family in Austria was stolen by the Nazis.
The Austrian symbolist’s 1905 colorful oil painting is titled “Rose Bushes Under the Trees” and had been in the popular Musee d’Orsay in Paris for decades.
French Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin told a press conference in Paris that “the decision to return a major work of art from public collections illustrates our commitment to the duty of justice and reparation relative to the families that were looted.” .
The oil painting will be returned to the family of Nora Stiasny, a Holocaust victim who was dispossessed during a forced sale in August 1938.
Bachelot-Narquin said French authorities had not initially identified that the painting had been stolen by the Nazis and its origin recently came to light after an investigation led by the French government.
“Until recent years the true origin of the painting was established,” said the minister, adding that it was “the only painting by Gustav Klimt owned by France.”
“‘Roses under the trees'” is a testament to the lives that a criminal impulse has incessantly sought to eliminate. “
Thousands of works looted by the Nazis in Europe ended up in French museums after the Allies defeated Nazi Germany in 1945. Although many were returned, French authorities have increased efforts in recent years to find the legal owners of dozens of works that belonged to families and remain unclaimed.
