(Q120844772)
Statements
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Lillie says she found proof that the Austrian state was aware of who the owners were long before the artworks were transferred to the Jewish organization. Among the auctioned works, for example, were a Dutch painting, a wing from a Gothic triptych, and three wood sculptures that had all belonged to Arthur Lourié, a prominent Viennese manufacturer. Austrian officials closed his restitution file in 1960.Lourié was indeed deceased: he died on September 3, 1939, when the British ocean liner SS Athenia, on which he was a passenger, was torpedoed by a German U-boat. His widow died in the United States in 1960. They were childless, but their nephew returned to Austria from exile in Canada at the end of the 1950s to reclaim the family business. It is not known if he was aware of the artworks. The state, which had documented evidence of ownership, didn’t inform him. (English)