U.S. Supreme Court Rules Sovereign Immunity No Bar to Suit to Recover Art from Austria

On June 7, 2004, the United States Supreme Court held by a 6-3 majority that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) of 1976 applies to conduct of the Republic of Austria’s alleged wrongdoing that occurred prior to the Act’s enactment, thereby allowing the sole heir of six valuable paintings to sue the Austrian Government and its instrumentality, the Austrian Gallery, to recover them. In 1999 an Austrian journalist discovered in the Austrian Gallery’s archives evidence that certain valuable works in the Gallery’s collection had not been donated, as represented, but had been seized by the Nazis or expropriated by the Austrian Republic after World War II. Once Maria V. Altmann, sole heir to the works, learned of the discovery, she filed the action to recover possession of six Gustav Klimt paintings. Before the Nazi invasion of Austria, the paintings had hung in the palatial Vienna home of her uncle Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a Czechoslovakian Jew and patron of the arts. Ms. Altmann claims ownership of the paintings under a will from her uncle after he fled Austria in 1938. She claims the Gallery obtained possession of the paintings through wrongful conduct.