Heir Challenges Sale of Long-Lost Klimt, Alleging Shoah-Era Theft Was Concealed

New York Dispatch

Heir Challenges Sale of Long-Lost Klimt, Alleging Shoah-Era Theft Was Concealed

A legal battle has erupted over a Gustav Klimt masterpiece valued at approximately $100 million, with the last known blood descendant of the family that originally owned the painting accusing a Vienna auction house of disguising the work's identity in order to sell it rather than return it to its rightful heirs.

Patricia Leahy, an American descendant of the prominent Austrian Jewish Lieser family, has filed proceedings in New York, alleging that Vienna-based auction house im Kinsky deliberately altered the title and history of Klimt's Portrait of Fräulein Margarethe Lieser to obscure its connection to a Jewish family whose property was seized during the Nazi era.

According to the court filing, the painting vanished after the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938 and remained missing for decades. It resurfaced unexpectedly in 2024 when it was offered for sale through im Kinsky. Leahy contends that the auction house removed "Margarethe" from the title of the work, thereby distancing it from its historical ownership and making its origins less obvious.

The lawsuit argues that the case goes beyond a dispute over a valuable work of art. It describes the portrait as a surviving witness to one of Europe's darkest chapters, raising questions not only about ownership but also about historical memory, justice, and restitution for families whose property was taken during the Shoah.

The portrait was commissioned by Adolf and Silvia Lieser, members of a wealthy Jewish industrial family, who engaged Gustav Klimt to paint their daughter Margarethe. Klimt died in 1918 before completing delivery of the work. The painting was later discovered in his studio in an unfinished but largely completed state and was subsequently transferred to the Lieser family.

Historical records indicate that the portrait was publicly exhibited only once, in Vienna in 1925, before disappearing from public view. The family maintained possession of the work until the late 1930s, when Jewish property throughout Austria was systematically confiscated under Nazi rule.

Although Margarethe Lieser and her children survived the Shoah and eventually settled in the United Kingdom, the family reportedly never learned what became of the painting. Margarethe died in 1965, while her son William continued searching for the artwork until his own death in 2021.

For decades, the portrait acquired an almost mythical status among art historians. It was frequently referenced in publications devoted to Klimt's work but was considered lost, with no confirmed sightings in modern times.

Leahy alleges that after the painting resurfaced, the auction house promoted a revised theory that the portrait may depict one of Margarethe's cousins rather than Margarethe herself. Her lawsuit claims that this reinterpretation served a practical purpose: weakening the connection between the painting and the family from whom it was allegedly taken.

The court filing further claims that the current possessor of the work reached agreements with certain heirs before the auction proceeded. Leahy maintains that she was excluded from those discussions despite her claim to be the last direct blood descendant of the Lieser family.

Another issue raised in the lawsuit concerns the choice of auction venue. Leahy argues that placing such an important Klimt work with a smaller Austrian auction house rather than a major international firm allowed the transaction to proceed under a less demanding framework for examining Shoah-era ownership claims.

The case now places renewed attention on the unresolved legacy of Nazi-looted art. While museums, collectors, and auction houses have spent decades addressing restitution claims, disputes continue to emerge whenever long-lost works resurface after generations of uncertainty.

Leahy's legal team argues that the matter is not simply about a painting or its considerable monetary value. Rather, they contend that it concerns the rights of families whose possessions were taken during a period of systematic persecution and whether those families are afforded a fair opportunity to reclaim what was lost.

As the proceedings move forward, the court will be asked to determine whether the painting's ownership history was properly disclosed and whether those claiming descent from the original owners were given the opportunity to participate in the restitution process before the work was offered for sale.

The auction house did not respond to requests for comment by the Jewish Dispatch.