English
The Leopold Museum, one of the most important in Vienna, paid no less than $ 19 million to restore a work by Austrian painter Egon Schiele. The museum’s director, Peter Weinhäupl, revealed that the agreement was made through a settlement that ended a long legal battle concerning the painting’s provenance.
The painting is called “Portrait of Wally” and the museum is content to have the picture back in its collection following its seizure in 1998 by US authorities, concerning suspicions that it had been stolen from its rightful owners by the Nazis.
To make this purchase Weinhäupl said the Museum sold various paintings and a U.S. bank will finance the transaction. As collateral, they took five gouache paintings by Schiele.
According to both Elisabeth Leopold and Diethard Leopold, the wife and son of the late founder of the museum, Rudolph Leopold announced that when “Portrait of Wally” is back at home will be a special presentation with a text to be written by both the Foundation and by the heirs of original owner. This text will explain the history of the work and the various changes of ownership, as well as all the legal wrangling that took place afterwards.
“Portrait of Wally” was stolen from a Jewish collector in Vienna by the Nazis in the ´30s. Years later, in the ´50s, Rudolph Leopold finally managed to acquire it. If you want to visit the Leopold Museum, where you can see paintings by Schiele and other very important Austrian artists, you can rent apartments in Vienna.
