Auction house sued for sneaky sale of Nazi-looted art worth $100M, heir claims

The last descendant of a Jewish family is accusing an auction house of trying to sell off a $100 million painting of her great aunt by a major artist after changing its name to hide the fact it had been stolen by Nazis during the Holocaust, new court papers says.Patricia Leahy — an American member of Austria’s wealthy Lieser family — claims that the Vienna auction house im Kinsky pulled the sneaky move so they could make a fortune by peddling Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Fräulein Margarethe Lieser” instead of returning it to its rightful owners. The work was taken from the Jewish family in 1938 by Nazis and never seen again — until it suddenly reappeared at the Vienna auction house in 2024 under an altered name and a false provenance, Leahy claims. The auction spot put the painting on the bloc in 2024 after taking the word “Margarethe” out of the title in what Leahy claims was an attempt to hide its real identity.

Although the suit says experts put the works’ value at $100 million — as it was one of Klimt’s final paintings — the underhanded auction attempt only fetched a $30 million bid, which was later withdrawn.The painting “has now become the symbol of a poignant narrative,” says suit, which was filed Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court .

“The portrait of a young Jewish woman frozen in 1918, which survived the ravages of history— including the Anschluss and looting of Jewish property—now compels the legal system to reckon with questions of memory, ownership, and restitution,” the suit says.The painting was commissioned by Adolpf and Silvia Lieser, who wanted Klimt — a legend of Austrian Art Nouveau — to paint an image in his famous style of their daughter, Margarethe, who is Leahy’s great aunt.

Klimt, however, died in 1918 before delivering the portrait, which was later found, unsigned in a nearly-finished state inside his studio and delivered to the Lieser family, the suit says.It was shown publicly only once, at...