La vente d’un Klimt contestée devant la justice américaine
A legal dispute has erupted in New York over Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Fräulein Lieser" (1917), a lost masterpiece that resurfaced in early 2024 and was auctioned by Vienna's im Kinsky auction house for €30 million. Patricia Leahy, claiming to be the granddaughter of industrialist Adolf Lieser and a direct heir, has filed a lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court against im Kinsky and the consignor, alleging she was excluded from negotiations and provenance research. The suit seeks to reclassify the painting's history as Nazi-looted art under the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act, bypassing a prior settlement among Austrian holders and identified descendants.
This case matters because it challenges the legitimacy of one of the most significant art market events of 2024 and tests the reach of U.S. restitution laws for Nazi-era loot. The painting's opaque provenance between 1925 and 1960—covering the Anschluss and WWII—raises unresolved questions about its ownership during the persecution of the Jewish Lieser family, including the deportation of Lilly Lieser to Auschwitz. The outcome could set a precedent for how auction houses handle contested histories and whether U.S. courts can override contractual agreements made abroad in restitution claims.