Heir Sues For Restitution Of $37.5 M. Gustav Klimt Portrait

A $37.5 million Klimt portrait that briefly reemerged after a century out of sight is now the subject of a new legal fight. Patricia J. Leahy, a South Carolina resident, filed suit Thursday in New York State Supreme Court against Eva Ropper and the Austrian auction house Im Kinsky, seeking restitution of Portrait of Fräulein Margarethe Lieser.

The complaint centers on a work Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) began in 1917, left unfinished and unsigned at his death, and later shown in a Vienna retrospective in 1925. After that, the painting disappeared from public view until Im Kinsky offered it for sale in 2024. It sold on a single bid for $37.5 million, setting a record for any artwork sold at auction in Austria. The bidder, a Hong Kong collector represented by Patti Wong and Associates, later withdrew the offer after attempting to reach agreement with potential claimants.

Leahy says she is the sole great-grandchild of Adolf Lieser, who commissioned the portrait, and the sole grandchild of Margarethe's brother Hans. Her suit argues that the Lieser family, a Jewish industrial family, was persecuted by the Nazis and lost nearly all of its possessions to seizure. It also claims that Im Kinsky listed the work without the subject's given name and did not follow accepted provenance practice. Leahy further contends that she was never properly contacted and had already challenged the sale before it reached the auction block.

Im Kinsky has said that all rightful heirs were identified and that a fair and just solution was reached under the 1998 Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art. The auction house did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The complaint says the painting remains in Kinsky's possession.

The case arrives at a moment when restitution disputes continue to test the art market's handling of Nazi-era losses. For works with broken ownership histories, the question is no longer only what a painting is worth, but who has the right to decide its future.

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