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I suspected there would be provenance trouble.
When the museums are purged of "degenerate art", the works are still legal. As are any of the works a Jew may have been forced to sell for pennies to save his life.
Some of those works were also so controversial back then that the buyers seldom displayed them after purchase. So even if stolen, such works would be very hard for any survivors to remember now.
When art is tagged Degenerate it can be just about anything from any period in history. There's always the time when the art is displayed, just to show how degenerate it is. That further complicates the provenance.
While Maria Altmann was able to recover Klimt paintings stolen from her family by the Nazis, not all Jewish families have been as successful in recovering their stolen art.
"Klimt painting stolen by Nazis will stay in Austria"
"Officials in Austria have ruled that a Gustav Klimt painting looted by the Nazis should not be returned to the heirs of its original Jewish owner.
The Beethoven Frieze was stolen by the Nazis just before World War II, reports the BBC.
Earlier, authorities decided to return the painting to the family of Jewish industrialist August Lederer after the war. But the painting was subject to an export ban, and Lederer at the time lived in Switzerland, which led the family to argue that they had to sell the painting at a cut-rate price.
The painting was sold in 1972 for a price of $750,000.
The family filed a subsequent claim for the return of the priceless painting after Austria amended its laws to apply to properties sold at a discount because of the export ban. But the panel deciding the claim ruled that the painting should not be taken out of Austria because of its connection with the country.
The painting is now on display at a museum in Austria.
The artwork is one of Klimt's most celebrated paintings and is based on Richard Wagner's interpretation of Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony."
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