Montreal man moves to recover Nazi-looted Klimt

A Montreal man is claiming ownership of a Gustav Klimt painting that he says was stolen from his Austrian grandmother during the Holocaust.

Georges Jorisch, 79, believes his family is the rightful owner of Blooming Meadow, a 1906 painting estimated to be worth $20 million. The work is now owned by cosmetics magnate Leonard Lauder, the chairman of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Leonard Lauder is the brother of Ronald Lauder, who helped a California woman recover a separate group of Klimt paintings in 2006 and later bought the Klimt painting Golden Adele for a reported $135 million US.

Ronald Lauder, founder of New York's Neue Galerie, helped to create the Commission for Art Recovery and has been an advocate for the return of Nazi-looted art.

But Leonard Lauder has said he does not believe the painting he bought is the one that belonged to Jorisch's grandmother.

The Montreal man believes Blooming Meadow was first bought by his uncle Viktor Zuckerkandl, a Viennese steel magnate and friend of Klimt. After Zuckerkandl's death in 1926, the painting passed to his sister, Amalie Redlich, whowas deported to Poland by the Nazis in 1941 and never heard from again. Redlich was Jorisch's grandmother.

Jorisch has hired E. Randol Schoenberg, the lawyer who acted for Californian Maria Altmann whorecovered theKlimts that were looted by the Nazis. Schoenberg is preparing a legal letter over the dispute and said he may later launch a lawsuit.

No proof that this is missing Klimt: Lauder's lawyer

Leonard Lauder, who purchased the painting in 1983 from the now-deceased Manhattan gallery owner Serge Sabarsky, has been in discussions with Jorisch for five years over the painting.

His lawyer, Andrew Frackman, said they have yet to see any proof that Redlich owned the Klimt.

"We've told Jorisch all along that if in fact his painting belonged to Ms. Redlich, Mr. Lauder would do the right thing," Frackman said.

It may be another painting that now hangs in the Muse D'Orsay in Paris that was hers before her disappearance, Frackman said.

Frackman said he and Lauder had investigated the history of six Klimts once owned by Zuckerkandl and "we have satisfied ourselves that Mr. Lauder's painting is not any of those six."

Netherlandsfaces huge claim on Nazi-looted art

Another case of Nazi-looted art is emerging in the Netherlands, this one involving works by 17th-century masters Jan Steen, Gerard Dou and Jacob van Ruisdael that are now owned by state museums.

A government commission is investigating what happened to 227 works once owned by Jewish art dealer Nathan Katz and now claimed by Katz's daughter, Sybilla Goldstein-Katz, who lives in the United States.

The Katz family's claim is the largest ever made to the Dutch government over Nazi-looted art.