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Thursday, April 1, 2004  David
Irving comments: I AM sure we have heard of this man,
this scum-sucking bottom crawler, Ed
Fagan, before. Oh yes, see the
related stories at
the foot of this page. |
Lawsuit Filed
Over Artwork Looted By Nazis USING a musty bank vault as a
backdrop, a
prominent
American lawyer announced Thursday he was filing a
US$1 billion lawsuit on behalf of Holocaust victims
whose precious artworks were stolen by the Nazis
and sold off after World War II. Edward D. Fagan, a New York-based
attorney who has fought for reparations for
American blacks who are descendants of slaves and
for victims of South Africa's apartheid system,
said the suit would be filed later Thursday in U.S.
District Court in New York. The suit, brought by a new group calling itself
the Association of Holocaust Victims for the
Restitution of Artwork and Masterpieces, calls on
two leading Austrian banks, the Austrian government
and Sotheby's auction house to return paintings and
other works allegedly sold without the permission
of their original Jewish owners. "Not one painting has been restored -- not one,"
Fagan said, contending the missing artworks include
paintings by Monet, Cezanne, Delacroix and
other Impressionist masters. "These victims are
suing to recover their property." The plaintiffs, who
were not identified by name, were said to
include several dozen families, mostly Jews,
from Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Germany,
Israel, Poland, Switzerland, the United States
and other countries. Their suit, alleging "the systematic theft of
great artwork, masterpieces and collections," seeks
between US$100 million and US$1 billion in damages
if the artworks -- valued at between US$2 million
and US$5 million apiece -- cannot be returned.  "We
would like the paintings back, but the likelihood
is not so good," Fagan (left) said.
At a press conference in a Vienna cafe, Fagan
showed reporters a sketch he said was drawn by an
unidentified former employee of Bank
Austria/Creditanstalt, purportedly showing the
location of a secret vault concealed beneath a trap
door that once contained priceless paintings
unclaimed after the war. He then led several dozen journalists on a walk
to the bank's nearby headquarters, where flustered
officials agreed to unlock the cellar and open
several vaults. None contained anything more than
old books and dusty boxes of documents and
files. Nonplussed, Fagan said he never expected to see
artworks, which he contended were sold off by
Sotheby's and other auction houses with the
complicity of Bank Austria/Creditanstalt, Erste
Bank and the Austrian government, which he said
issued export licenses allowing the works to leave
the country. The works' rightful owners, he said, were mostly
Jews who perished in the Holocaust -- the Nazis'
extermination of 6 million people. Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, one
year before the war began in Europe. "We are accusing the banks of engaging in the
trafficking of stolen Holocaust artwork," Fagan
said. "It's not sufficient to say, `We don't have
anything.' A New York court is going to say, `Well,
you've got something -- show me."' The 16-page lawsuit alleges that the banks
"developed systems and schemes through which they
collected, took title to and/or profited from
artwork ... which the defendant Austrian banks
knew, had reason to know and/or upon the exercise
of reasonable diligence could have discovered were
stolen from Holocaust victims." Bank Austria, which recently merged with
Creditanstalt, paid US$45 million in 1999 to settle
a lawsuit brought by Fagan on behalf of Jews whose
gold and other financial assets were stolen by the
Nazis and allegedly fell into the bank's hands
after the war. Spokesman Peter Thier said the bank was
eager to cooperate in any way and show it does not
possess artworks or other valuables seized by the
Nazis. He said the bank was working closely with an
independent historical commission set up in the
mid-1990s to handle claims by victims of Nazi
looting. Oliver Rathkolb,
a ranking member of the commission, told the
Austria Press Agency there was "no evidence of a
connection between art theft" and the
bank. "We have no problem with exposing the truth. We
want to be as transparent as possible," Thier said,
conceding that if proof exists that the bank was
involved in illegal sales of artwork, "it would be
a catastrophe." A respected
Austrian newspaper, Der Standard, reported
Thursday that one of the disputed masterpieces is
"Mount Sinai," an oil by El Greco that
surfaced a decade ago at an open market in Vienna,
only to disappear until it was auctioned by
Sotheby's for US$5 million five years ago. Fagan said he was pressing the Austrian
government for a list of export licenses issued for
all paintings that left the country between 1945
and 1998. He told The Associated Press he also was
in contact with the U.S. Justice Department and the
White House about possible involvement. © MMIV Infinity
Broadcasting Corp. 
Prominent
Holocaust Claims Lawyer Ed Fagan Accused of
Neglecting Clients-
Lawyer
in Holocaust Case [Ed Fagan] Faces
Litany of Complaints
-
Shakedown
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