Vienna - One of Austria's most treasured artworks looked safe to remain in the country for now after an expert panel Friday rejected restitution claims by descendants of its Jewish former owners robbed by the Nazis.
The Art Restitution Advisory Board "recommended unanimously ... not to return the 'Beethoven Frieze' by Gustav Klimt to the heirs of Erich Lederer," the body's chair Clemens Jabloner told journalists in Vienna.
The fresco, 34 metres (112 feet) long, two metres high and weighing several tons, is widely regarded as a central masterpiece of Viennese "Jugendstil" art nouveau from the early 20th century.
The panel rejected arguments that an export ban had forced Lederer to sell the artwork to the Austrian Republic in 1972 at what his heirs say was a knock-down price of 15 million schillings or around $750,000.
But Marc Weber, a lawyer from Swiss law firm Lanter Rechtsanwaelte representing some of the heirs, told AFP that the panel had "muddled up the facts."
"We are now considering taking their case to the European Court of Human Rights and/or to the United States," Weber said.
AFP
