Painting looted by Nazis fetches $1.17 million

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
An Albin Egger-Lienz painting that the Nazis seized from its original owner fetched a record $1.17 million at an auction in Vienna, with the proceeds to go to heirs in California, it was reported on Wednesday. "Totentanz 1809," or "Dance of Death 1809," was auctioned off Tuesday evening at Vienna's Dorotheum. An official said that the winning bidder was an Austrian man in his 40s but did not release his name. The proceeds were set to go to Herta Fox of Los Angeles, a descendant of the Austrian Jewish family who owned the work before the Nazis confiscated it during World War II. The painting resurfaced after the war and ended up in the collection of a museum in the southwestern city of Lienz, where officials agreed to return it.