Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Holocaust Survivor’s Kin Seek Return of Looted Klimt Painting ‘Beethoven Frieze’

The family of a Holocaust survivor who fled Vienna in 1938 has filed a claim for the return of one of the country’s national treasures.

The heirs of Erich Lederer, wealthy Austrian Jews who were important patrons of artist Gustav Klimt, have asked for the restitution of Klimt’s 1902 creation “Beethoven Frieze.” The claims were filed on Tuesday with the government’s Art Restitution Advisory Board, which will make a recommendation to Claudia Schmied, the country’s minister for education, the arts and culture, who will make the final decision, according to The New York Times.

The Lederer family fled Austria in 1938, which led to the seizure of its extensive art collection. Many of the family’s valuable artworks, including 18 works by Klimt, were destroyed.

The “Beethoven Frieze” was returned to the family after World War II, but the state required that they sell the frieze to the government for half its value in order to export the rest of what was recovered of the family’s art collection to Switzerland, where they lived.

The family is now suing for the return of the work under a law passed in 2009 that allows for victims to file restitution claims if they were forced to sell the works for less than their values.

The work is a visual representation of the composer’s Ninth Symphony; it is on display in a government building and is featured on the country’s commemorative 100-euro coin.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.