It was sad to read of the passing of Maria Altman, a Jewish refugee from Nazis persecution, but up-lifting to read of her battle, and triumph, over the Austrian government for the return of looted art treasures stolen from her family in 1938.
It was not until 1998 that the Austrians passed a law making the return of looted art works possible but it still took Maria 8 years before they finally capitulated.
‘They had stolen the paintings………and kept them for 68 years’ she is reported as saying in 2007, ‘they never made the slightest attempt to compensate us………they just wanted to keep them’.
‘Cheats never beat’ my Gran used to say.
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