Hubertus Czernin, 50; tracked looted art

LOS ANGELES -- Hubertus Czernin, an Austrian journalist who was a key figure in efforts to return several multimillion-dollar paintings looted by Nazis in World War II to their rightful owner in Los Angeles, died Saturday at age 50.

Mr. Czernin, who had been in failing health for several years, died in Vienna, of complications from mastocytosis, a rare blood disease, according to Randol Schoenberg, a Los Angeles attorney who represented Maria Altmann in the art restitution case.

The works in question were pieces by Gustav Klimt seized by Nazi officials in Vienna in 1938. The pieces included two famous portraits of Adele Bloch-Bauer, an art patron who helped finance Klimt's work, as well as three landscapes.

Mr. Czernin was the first journalist to gain access to the archives at the Austrian Gallery, the country's national museum, and examine the paper trail surrounding pieces of art with questionable ownership.

His reporting led to a series of articles about stolen art works in Der Standard in 1998, when he first wrote about the case of Bloch-Bauer and her paintings. He later wrote a book on the art restitution issue and used Klimt's gold portrait of Bloch-Bauer on the cover.

``His research led to Austria's enactment of legislation that ultimately led to the recovery of the Klimt paintings," Schoenberg said," as well as thousands of other works of art -- both large and small -- to other families."

The Art Restitution Law opened museum archives in Austria and facilitated claims from families seeking restitution of art works that were either seized by the Nazis during the war or expropriated by the Austrian government after the war.

After the legislation was enacted, Altmann received a call from a friend in Austria telling her of the development. Over the years, Altmann had been told that her aunt, Bloch-Bauer, had given the paintings to the Austrian gallery in 1925. But Czernin's research showed that claim to be false and paved the way for Altmann's legal efforts to gain custody of the works.

In 2004, the U S Supreme Court ruled Altmann could sue Austria in U S courts for restitution of the paintings. In an effort to avoid a protracted court fight, Schoenberg entered in a binding arbitration with the Austrian government for his client. In January 2006, an Austrian Arbitration Court ordered the government to turn over five Klimt paintings to Altmann.

``Hubertus Czernin was a hero to me," Schoenberg said. ``He committed his life to exposing unspoken truths about Austria and its Nazi past. Without his efforts, none of the recent art restitution would have taken place and certainly the five famous Klimt paintings would never have been returned to Maria Altmann. As Maria says, `Without Hubertus, there would have been nothing.' "

In a country where many journalists have been deferential to those in power, Mr. Czernin stood apart.

He was once fired as editor of the magazine Profil for running a cover photo that superimposed the head of then-Chancellor Franz Vranitzky over the body of a naked man. The headline read: ``The Emperor's New Clothes."

Though quiet and somewhat shy, he was at the forefront of journalists investigating allegations in the mid-1980s that former United Nations Secretary General and Austrian President Kurt Waldheim's links to the Nazis during the war had not been fully revealed.

Years later, Mr. Czernin was no less deferential to the Roman Catholic Church. His investigation of Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer found that the former leader of Austria's Roman Catholic Church had sex with up to 2,000 seminarians and monks starting in the 1950s and ending in the 1990s.

On Tuesday in Vienna, Czernin was honored by the B'nai B'rith International for his efforts to facilitate the return of the looted art works.

The son of an Austrian aristocratic family, Mr. Czernin was born Jan. 17, 1956. In a New Yorker article some years ago, he recalled that he learned little about Austria's place in World War II in public schools. It was only through his family that he learned the extent of the anti-Semitism during and after the war years.

After studying history, art history and political science in college, he became interested in journalism. His first full-time staff position was as a political writer for Wochenpresse.

Mr. Czernin was in Los Angeles in April, when the Klimt paintings went on display at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

In opening ceremonies, he was applauded for his role in the paintings coming to Altmann. The paintings remain on view until June 30.

After his mastocytosis was diagnosed in 1999, Mr. Czernin concentrated his investigative and research efforts on Nazi art looting.

Mr. Czernin leaves his wife, Valerie; three daughters, Sophie, Johanna and Antonia; and a brother, Dr. Johannes Czernin of Los Angeles.