Alice Kantor (Q108777609)
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researcher for Time Life and for CBS who had fled Nazi Austria in 1938
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Alice Kantor |
researcher for Time Life and for CBS who had fled Nazi Austria in 1938 |
Statements
6 January 2012
1 reference
Alexandra Caruso publishes an interview with Alice Kantor on aryanization and the difficulties in obtaining restitution (English)
2 references
1 reference
In December 1973, Bruno Kreisky, who had been ruling Austria virtually single-handedly for more than three years, received a letter from his minister of economic affairs, Hertha Firnberg. The issue which Ms Firnberg wanted to present to the federal Chancellor was not earth-shattering: a Jewish lady, Alice Kantor, who had been driven out of Vienna in 1930, claimed a drawing by Gustav Klimt from the Albertina Collection as her own and her brother’s property. The picture had hung in the office of her father, a well known lawyer in the city. It had been confiscated and sold off, together with his entire art collection, by the Nazi party after the siblings’ escape. But the director of the Albertina, Walter Koschatzky, did not want to relinquish the drawing “Lady with feather boa”. Eloquently he declared his doubts about the authenticity of the drawing. He explained that the measurements did not match and, besides, Klimt had drawn many pictures of the kind. Press polemics about this case, initiated by Simon Wiesenthal, did not manage to change Mr Koschatzky’s attitude.Ms Firnberg, the minister responsible in this case, reported to the Chancellor, who had previously intervened in favour of Alice Kantor, now resident in New York. (English)
Many Holocaust survivors searched tirelessly for their possessions in the post-war years, just like Ms Kantor. Often the search was futile and those who found them usually had to present valuable works of art to the Austrian State museums in order to be allowed to take at least part of their collections abroad. The Austrian museums always invoked the export embargo implemented after World War II, which forbad all export of valuable works of art.Ms Kantor gave up in the mid 70s. In the end not even Mr Kreisky could or would help her. Under pressure from the Austrian authorities, who warned her of lengthy and expensive legal proceedings, and against compensation of ASch50,000, which she gave the Jewish community in Vienna, she renounced her claim to the Klimt drawing in the Albertina. It took another twenty-five years until she finally saw another chance of obtaining at least this one picture from her father’s former collection. (English)