Austrian finds a Klimt buyer
The president of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce is hoping that one of the five Gustav Klimt paintings the country recently had to give up can be purchased and returned to a museum there.
Christoph Leitl said Wednesday he had found a buyer who would be willing to pay the estimated $25-million price tag for “Haeuser in Unterach am Attersee” (“Houses in Unterach on Lake Atter”).
The five paintings were handed over by Austria in January to Maria Altmann of Los Angeles and other family members following a seven-year legal battle. An arbitration court had ruled that they were improperly seized when the Nazis took over the country during World War II.
One of them already has been sold; the others are scheduled to be sold by Christie’s auction house in New York this fall.
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