It’s good to see that some property rights of Holocaust victims are not deemed preempted by foreign policy agreements. According to a press release by the law firm Herrick, a settlement was reached in the case involving Portrait of Wally, a painting by Egon Schiele that was stolen in the late 1930′s from Lea Bondi Jaray, a Jewish art dealer in Vienna. The painting was later acquired by the Leopold Museum in Vienna, but was made subject to court proceedings in New York in 1997 when it was loaned to the Museum of Modern Art.

According to the press release, the terms of the settlement are as follows:

(a) the Leopold Museum pays the Estate $19 Million;

(b) the Estate releases its claim to the Painting;

(c) the United States Government dismisses the civil forfeiture action it brought against the Leopold Museum and releases the Painting to the Leopold Museum;

(d) the Leopold Museum will permanently display signage next to the Painting at the Leopold Museum, and at all future displays of the Painting of any kind that the Leopold Museum authorizes or allows anywhere in the world, that sets forth the true provenance of the Painting, including Lea Bondi Jaray’s prior ownership of the Painting and its theft from her by a Nazi agent before she fled to London in 1939; and

(e) before it is transported to the Leopold Museum in Vienna, the Painting will be publicly exhibited at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, in New York, beginning with a ceremony commemorating the legacy of Lea Bondi Jaray and the successful resolution of the lawsuit.