United States v. Portrait of Wally

OPINION and ORDER

LORETTA A. PRESKA, Chief Judge.

This protracted dispute stems from the alleged theft of Portrait of Wally (“Wally ” or “the Painting”), a painting by renowned Austrian artist Egon Schiele, from Lea Bondi Jaray (“Bondi”). The Government, and Bondi’s Estate (the “Estate”), contend that after the Germans occupied Austria in 1938, Friedrich Welz, a Nazi, stole Wally from Bondi, a Jewish owner of a Viennese art gallery, and the Painting has remained stolen property ever since. The Government and the Estate further assert that claimant the Leopold Museum (the “Museum”), knowing…