Vienna Leopold Museum will pay $ 19 million for Egon Schiele’s painting "Portrait of Wally"

NY. The 12-year debate, which showed how difficult it is to prove that the Nazis stole art during the Second World War, ended on Tuesday. The parties agreed that the 1912 painting, entitled “Portrait of Wally,” will be returned to the Vienna Museum and will be on display with a note that it was stolen from a Jewish merchant by a fascist agent.

The Leopold Museum will receive possession of the Austrian artist Egon Schiele after paying $ 19 million to the management of the estate of Lee Bondi Jaray. The museum will also be required to permit the painting to be displayed for three weeks at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan.

The painting caused litigation between the Leopold Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York 12 years ago. At least three times, the judge ruled in favor of the return of the painting to Austria, but without notice of the theft.

U.S. Attorney Pret Bharara said the agreement between the US Government, the Leopold Museum and the Jarai Estate is "another small step towards justice for victims of theft during World War II."

The deal took place less than a year after a judge from the United States, Loretta Presca, refused the Leopold Museum to publish information about the theft of the painting. A few days earlier, the judge decided in court whether the painting was stolen at the Leopold Museum when it was brought to the States in September 1997.

In January 1998, the Manhattan prosecutor’s office launched an investigation and found out that the painting was stolen more than half a century ago when Jaraya was forced to sell it to a fascist collector for nothing.

After that, the state judge banned the seizure of the painting and by the decision of the court of appeal did not give permission to return the masterpiece, having seized him. The federal prosecutor’s office received a warrant to detain the painting.

The painting was one of hundreds rented by the Museum of Modern Art from the Leopold Foundation for a three-month exhibition, which ended on January 4, 1998. At that time, the value of "Portrait of Wally" was estimated at $ 2 million.

The Leopold Museum has always insisted that they received the painting of the free will of one of the honest post-war owners.

Henry Bondi from Princeton, New Jersey, said the painting was taken from his Jewish aunt when she fled to London due to the capture of Austria by German troops in 1939. She died in 1969. Henry Bondi, too, had already died.

The Leopold Museum attorney did not comment on the situation.

By agreement, Bondi representatives will receive compensation in the amount of the actual value of the painting.

The agreement also noted that a public display of the painting at the Museum of Jewish Heritage will allow visitors to see a reminder of the victims of the Holocaust and the resilience of those who managed to escape and survive.

“Justice has triumphed,” the statement said. “Finally, after more than 70 years, they will learn about the suffering of Lee Bondi Jaraya, and to some extent pay for them.”

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