The auction house Christie’s will sell a collection of more than 1,000 works on behalf of the Federation of Austrian Jewish communities.
Most of the art to be sold in the October auction, called the Mauerbach Benefit Sale, was seized by Nazis from Jewish homes between 1938 and 1945.
For more than 40 years, the confiscated works of art have been stored in a 14th century monastery in Mauerbach, about 30 miles from Vienna.
Efforts to reunite the original owners or surviving family members with their artwork resulted in the return of more than 10,000 pieces.
In 1995, a special act of Parliament allowed for the transfer of ownership of the remaining to works to the Federation of Austrian Jewish Communities.
Highlights of the sale include works by Alexander Archipenko, Rudolf von Alt, Abraham Brueghel and Guglielmo Cortese.
Christie’s has said it will not profit from the auction, which is expected to raise more than #3.5 million.
Proceeds from the two-day event will be distributed worldwide to benefit both Jewish and non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust as well as the families of those victims, the auction house said.
The Federation of Austrian Jewish Communities has established an international honorary committee, headed by Ronald Lauder, former U.S. ambassador to Austria, which will oversee the distribution of funds.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
