LONDON — A painting by Gustav Klimt that disappeared after its owner died in the Holocaust is up for sale in London next month.
Sotheby's auction house values "Church in Cassone -- Landscape with Cypresses" at US$19 million to $29 million.
The 1913 painting of Italy's Lake Garda was put into storage in Vienna by owner Amalie Redlich after the Nazi invasion of Austria.
She was deported to Lodz in Poland in 1941 and never heard from again.
The painting reappeared in the 1960s and is being sold after a deal was struck between its current owner and Redlich's 81-year-old grandson, Georges Jorisch. Sotheby's said Wednesday the current owner wished to remain anonymous.
The painting is being offered at an Impressionist and modern art sale on Feb 3, 2010.
Cassone on Lake Garda, near Malcesine
'Looted' Klimt to sell at Sotheby's for up to £18m
Church in Cassone, Kirche in Cassone, a serene meditation on a small town on the banks of Lake Garda in Italy, is expected to fetch up to £18 million.
The proceeds will be split between the current owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, and the descendant of the Jewish Viennese family to whom it had belonged.
The 1913 work, painted in a typical Klimt palate of soft greens, blues and oranges, had hung on the wall of Georges Jorisch's grandmother's house.
Mr Jorisch, now 81 and a retired camera shop manager in Montreal, moved to Canada in 1950, having lived in hiding with his father in Brussels for two years during the war.
His grandmother Amelia had tried to safeguard the painting, putting it in storage, but it disappeared. She stayed in Vienna but was deported to Poland's Lodz ghetto, along with Mr Jorisch's mother. They were never heard of again.
The painting resurfaced in 1962 but it has taken decades for the restitution process to be resolved.
Lucian Simmons, head of Sotheby's restitution department, said the current owners were "shocked" to hear of its history and had "acted in good faith" when they purchased it. Sotheby's declined to say how the proceeds would be split.