[CPProt.net] Canadian Family wins battle in Czech court to reclaim art

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Family wins battle in Czech court to reclaim art

By JAMES ADAMS 

Friday, December 16, 2005 Page R2
 
 Toronto -- A Canadian family has won another legal battle in its attempt to
reclaim a European art collection assembled by their Jewish grandfather
before the Second World War and later confiscated by the Nazis and then the
Communists. A panel of three judges with the Czech Republic Court of Appeal
yesterday upheld a lower-court decision of December, 2004, that granted
possession of 21 works to Toronto banking executive Andrew Federer and his
family.

The family has been fighting for more than 14 years to gain title to and
possession of some of the estimated 140 art works -- including paintings by
Gustav Klimt, James Ensor and Oskar Kokoschka -- owned by their grandfather,
businessman Oskar Federer. Many of the works are housed in small

public galleries in the cities of Ostrava and Pardubice. The gallery
operators have fought a protracted battle to keep the works in the Czech
Republic, and it's expected they will appeal yesterday's ruling to the Czech
Supreme Court once the decision is published next month.

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