In our last post, we were discussing the recent settlement of a claim against a private art museum in Vienna. The claim was made by a Holocaust survivor's heirs, who knew that the Nazis had wrongfully acquired the two paintings in question. As we said, this isn't typical probate litigation, but we thought we would include it here because of Florida's strong connection with Holocaust survivors.

After the war, the two paintings by Austrian artist Anton Romako made their way to the Leopold Museum Foundation, a private organization founded by an ophthalmologist and art collector. When original owner Moriz Eisler or his heirs asked the foundation to restore the paintings to their pre-Nazi owner, museum founder Rudolf Leopold balked.

After Austria passed a restitution law in 1998 that required state museums to return Nazi-looted artworks to their Holocaust-era owners, Leopold balked again. His museum, he argued, was a private establishment, not a state museum -- the law did not apply to him.

Rudolf Leopold died last year. His son took over the foundation and promised to settle Holocaust-era claims as soon as possible. Both he and the heirs concede that the elder Leopold had purchased the paintings in good faith -- the foundation is "without doubt" the owner.

Current ownership is not the issue, of course. The issue in all Nazi art looting cases is how the works entered the market in the first place. Establishing clear title to artworks has been a challenge for the past 65 years.

The paintings will stay with the museum, and the heirs will get their settlement. Neither party disclosed the exact dollar figure, but similar claims have been settled in the past year for $5 million and $19 million.

Source: Bloomberg.com, "Vienna's Leopold Settles With Heir on Nazi-Looted Paintings," Catherine Hickley and Zoe Schneeweiss, 06/20/2011