Famous auction house to sell Rothschilds’ Nazi-looted paintings

LONDON, April 11 (JTA) — A collection of artworks looted by the Nazis from the Rothschild family in Vienna is expected to be auctioned by Christie’s in London in June. The collection is valued at some $35 million and is considered one of the most important owned by a single private collector. The 250 works include 31 oils by Old Masters, a $5 million medieval manuscript, antique furniture, suits of armor, and 16th- and 17th-century musical instruments. The Rothschild family was given permission to remove the collection from Vienna only after the Austrian government scrapped a law two months ago forbidding their export. The collection belonged to Baron Louis de Rothschild and his brother, Baron Alphons, who were leading members of Austria’s prewar Jewish community. Within 24 hours of the Anschluss, or Nazi takeover of Austria in 1938, SS officers swooped in on members of the banking dynasty, seizing their collection of art and antiques. After the war, the Austrian government imposed an export ban on the collection, and while the Rothschilds’ ownership was not contested, the government allowed the collection to be displayed at two museums in Vienna. After the Austrian government agreed to allow the collection to leave the country, Bettina Looram-Rothschild, Baron Alphons’ daughter, contacted Christie’s, which in 1996 had sold unclaimed artworks stolen by the Nazis from Austrian Jews. The Rothschild auction will give collectors a rare chance to buy paintings which, until recently, were hanging in a Vienna museum that is considered one of the world’s great art galleries. One of the finest paintings to be sold is the Frans Hals portrait of Tieleman Roosterman, which is expected to fetch several million dollars. Another of the most valuable items in the collection is a medieval manuscript, known as the Rothschild Book of Hours, which is expected to be auctioned for $5 million.