Auction house sued for sneaky sale of Nazi-looted art worth $100M, heir claims
An auction house is being sued for allegedly attempting to sell a Nazi-looted painting worth $100 million without returning it to its rightful owners. Patricia Leahy, a descendant of the original owners, claims the auction house changed the painting's name to conceal its identity. The lawsuit highlights issues of memory, ownership, and restitution related to the artwork taken during the Holocaust.
- ▪Patricia Leahy claims that the auction house im Kinsky tried to sell her great aunt's painting by Gustav Klimt after altering its name.
- ▪The painting was stolen by Nazis in 1938 and resurfaced in 2024 under a false provenance.
- ▪Experts have valued the painting at $100 million, but it only received a $30 million bid during the auction.
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Metro Auction house sued for sneaky sale of Nazi-looted art worth $100M, heir claims By Peter Senzamici Published June 5, 2026, 5:15 p.m. ET See more of our coverage in your search results. Add The New York Post on Google The last descendant of a Jewish family is accusing an auction house of trying to sell off a $100 million painting of her great aunt by a major artist after changing its name to hide the fact it had been stolen by Nazis during the Holocaust, new court papers says. Patricia Leahy — an American member of Austria’s wealthy Lieser family — claims that the Vienna auction house im Kinsky pulled the sneaky move so they could make a fortune by peddling Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Fräulein Margarethe Lieser” instead of returning it to its rightful owners.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at New York Post.
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